Bayo Onanuga, a member of the Presidential Transition Council has stated why the All Progressives Congress (APC) allocated two National Assembly leadership positions to the North-West geo-political zone.
Last week, the ruling party made public its zoning formula for the leadership positions of the incoming 10th National Assembly. The party allocated two positions to the North-West, leaving out the North-Central zone, an action that has sparked protests and criticism from legislators-elect.
The region made up of seven states of the federation got the slots of Deputy Senate President and Speaker of House of Representatives with nominations of Barau Jibrin and Tajudeen Abbas respectively as the preferred candidates of the ruling party.
The APC micro-zoned the Senate Presidency to the South-South and nominated Godswill Akpabio, a former Niger Delta Affairs minister, for the position.
The South-East is expected to produce the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Benjamin Kalu has been recommended for the seat.
Apart from sidelining the North-Central region, the APC is also facing criticism from some of its legislators-elect who are threatening anti-party activities if their interests are not met.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, Onanuga said the North-West was allocated the two leadership positions at the lawmaking arm for voting massively for the party.
The director of the defunct media and publicity of the Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council said the region deserves to be compensated as the APC would have lost the three-horse race without the geo-political zone.
“The North West gave the APC the largest number of votes in the last election and I think it is fair that they are compensated,” Mr Onanuga asserted. “Without the North West, there is no way the APC would have won the election. So, as far as APC is concerned, you have to recognise that and compensate them accordingly.
“Of course they brought almost 2.7 million votes, but you know they lost quite a number of states, including the governorship in Kano and Zamfara.
“They are for local reasons, not because the people there didn’t like the APC. I think Zamfara people had a problem with Governor Bello Matawalle, but generally, the party did very well in the North West,” he added.
Speaking on the sidelining of the North-Central, the former director-general of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said “Well, there are still other positions; they have only mentioned four.”
