Speakership set for North Central

If the struggle for the senate president of 2015 and the subsequent power grab of Saraki is any indication, it is almost a done deal that the office of the Senate President has already been zoned to the Northeast. And the incumbent Senate Leader, Dr. Ahmad Lawan will likely be the chosen- even though Senator Ali Ndume will make an excellent Senate President.

That leaves the office of the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Also, if politics were a class, then we could assign grades to our regions according to their performances in favor of the ruling party during the last presidential elections and we can allocate the office of the Speaker of House of Representatives to the best performer.

Northwest took the first position by gifting APC six million votes and by punishing the PDP by giving it only a third of what they gave Buhari (2.2 million). But Northwest has already been rewarded with the presidency.

Northeast was second with 3.2 million for the APC; also like Northwest they gave the PDP a little over one third of what they gave Buhari (1.2 million votes).

There are only two more regions where the APC won: North Central and Southwest.

But North Central performed better than Southwest. While NC gave Buhari 2,465,599 votes and PDP 2,023,769 votes (a difference of 400,000 votes), SW posted 2,036,450 votes for the APC and 1,776,670 votes for the PDP; a difference of less than 300,000 votes.

Yet, the poor performance of the SW doesn’t matter because they already have the Vice President from among them. It would stand logic on its head to even consider them for Speaker. It would also mean that APC is rewarding poor performance and punishing loyalists. A dangerous move in politics.

What does this mean?

It means that the position should go to the North Central. But even in this region, there’s only one state where Buhari has never lost. In 2015, the state gave Buhari 80% of the votes, this year it again gave APC 71% of the votes or 612,371 votes. To boot, this state gave all the three senatorial districts and the 10 federal constituencies to APC. Therefore, the Speaker should come from Niger State.

And out of the 10 members of the House of Representatives from the state, only one person is returning, the other nine are new.

Therefore, Malam Umar Mohammad Bago, a third-term rep representing Chanchaga Federal Constituency, should be considered for that office.

It is time to reward NIGER State for its efforts and loyalty.

Dr. Ibraheem Dooba, Minna