House Member Blames South-east Govs over Loss of Speakership Position

Davidson Iriekpen

A member of the House of Representatives representing Okigwe South federal constituency, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has urged the South-east leaders to stop attacking President Muhammadu Buhari for losing out in the leadership positions in the National Assembly, particularly the office of the Speaker.

Nwajiuba, who was a speakership aspirant in the recent contest for the office, faulted a particular governor from the zone for spurning entreaties by Buhari to facilitate the zoning of the speakership position to the South-east.

In a statement issued yesterday thanking his supporters for backing him in the contest for the office of the Speaker, Nwajiuba said: “I wish to urge restraint by some persons and groups in the South-east who are quick to attack unjustifiably Mr. President over the current state of events. Nothing can be further from the truth. Mr. President does not hate Ndigbo and has no reason to. As a matter of fact, it was Mr. President’s sincere wish to have the Speaker emerge from the South-east and his attempts for that to happen were thwarted.

“As a matter of fact, the presidency pressed the then APC governor of Imo State to allow a level-playing field for the House of Representatives primaries to facilitate the zoning of the Speakership office to the zone. The governor refused.

“His attempt at imposition and the resistance that ensued destroyed the cohesion of the party in the state, undermined the primaries, leading to its nullification by the court. I was thus compelled to seek agreement with other aggrieved members of APC to contest the Okigwe South federal seat on the platform of Accord Party.”

“While attacking Mr. President seems expedient and easy, the truth is that there are facts that may not be available to some of those who do this. We in the South-east must realise that if today we feel left out, it is simply because of the political actions by our leaders and we must not shy away from being introspective and taking responsibility.

“So, the way forward for the South-east is to, as I said earlier, engage with Mr. President and his administration, offer support and make constructive demands.

“To engage in name calling, abuse, outright lies and propaganda is an unhelpful route. We are a major stakeholder of this country and deserve to be recognised and treated as such but we must also be very astute in our political maneuvering. To neglect that and busy ourselves in destructive politics will take the South-east nowhere,” he said.