Akeredolu rejects National Assembly zoning arrangement which leave north central zone with nothing

GOVERNOR Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has expressed his displeasure at the zoning arrangement for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly introduced by the All Progressives Congress (APC) national working committee (NWC) and called for a review.

Over the last week, the president-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has been involved in a series of meetings with APC lawmakers and the NWC. It appears that the party has now agreed to zone the senate president to the south-south geo-political zone and the deputy senate presidency to the northwest, while the speakership of the House of Representatives will also go to the northwest, with the deputy speaker going to the southeast.

However, Governor Akeredolu, the chairman of the South West Governors Forum, has called for an emergency meeting of the national executive committee of the party to address the issue. He said the proposed zoning arrangement is a skewed decision which reinforces injustice and enhances inequity.

Governor Akeredolu encouraged aspirants for the key principal positions who have rejected the decision to stand firm in their resolution for justice. Among other things, Governor Akeredolu asked how the northwest can be favoured with two presiding officers positions out of four while the north central zone suffers the consequences for its innocence and shrewd loyalty by having none.

"It is an insidious permutation that the north central zone will be deprived in the face of the unsavoury generosity dispensed through two slots to a particular geo-political zone. It is self-repudiating for one to argue, therefore, that the speaker of the House of Representatives cannot also emerge from the northwest.

"Therefore, the move to zone the National Assembly leadership positions on the behest of interested personalities with perceived closeness to the president-elect manifestingly, lays the dangerous foundation of distrust, needless suspicion even as it structures nothing but a combination of booby traps. We must avoid all these," Governor Akeredolu added.

Furthermore, he stressed that it strikes him as a huge ingratitude that the role of the Progressive Governors Forum appears unimportant in these decisions. Governor Akeredolu called on president-elect Tinubu to investigate this skewed arrangement and give direction that reflects the party's collective commitment to equality and fairness.