Groups tackle APC over zoning of national assembly leadership

The groups described the appointment and announcement of Godswill Akpabio and others for leadership positions in the upcoming national assembly as a rape of democracy.

In a statement released on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, after the groups press conference in Abuja, Dauda Yakubu, the group’s national president said the sharing of the position of the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker, and Deputy Speaker is an anomaly.

The statement reads in part, “We were therefore shocked to read reports that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has come up with a zoning template and even went further to rub salt on injury by attaching names to the positions of principal officers — Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and all other offices of the National Assembly”.

“It is on record that the APC kicked against such an arrangement in the past, describing it as a hijack of democracy. It is therefore ironic that the persons in APC who rejected the imposition of leadership on the National Assembly are either ominously quiet now or are the ones undermining our democratic tenets.

“The imposition of leaders is nothing but a coronation of some individuals who would not necessarily earn the acceptance of their colleagues, which implies that they also will not enjoy the acceptance of the constituents of their colleagues”.

Yakubu also fingered the incumbent Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila as one of the brains behind the appointment and imposition of some politicians on members of the next national assembly.

He said, “The zoning template and the consequent naming of principal officers for the National Assembly before the parliament is proclaimed can therefore be best described as a coronation ceremony before the birth of the king, which is not allowed in a democracy.

“We are aware that the outgoing Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila is a key factor in this ongoing rape of democracy. It is unbecoming that Rt. Hon. Gbajabiamila, who has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of our democracy, could be the one machinating to sabotage the institution that defines him in Nigerian politics.

“Had usurpers dictated the composition of the leadership of the 9th National Assembly he certainly would not occupy the position of the Speaker today and would consequently not have the clout to attempt imposing a leadership on the National Assembly”.

The implication of the zoning arrangement according to the group would erase the principle of separation of power and make the 10th national assembly become a rubber-stamp assembly.

“This move becomes even more abhorrent with the realization that Rt. Hon. Gbajabiamila is on his way to becoming part of the executive in one form or the other. He has been tipped as a potential Chief-of-Staff to the incoming president, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. The implication of his coronating the leadership of the National Assembly while assuming an executive position is that he would erase the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature and creation of a rubber-stamp parliament.

“A rubber-stamp National Assembly is precisely what the country does not need currently bearing in mind the extent of reform-oriented legislation and oversight that is needed in the months and years ahead. Nigerians need a parliament that they can hold accountable and not one that answers to a kingmaker in the person of Rt. Hon. Gbajabiamila”, he said.

The groups, therefore, called on Nigerians and “men of good conscience within the APC” to kick against the development.

“The Coalition of Pro-democracy CSOs further called on Nigerians and the international community to start watching the APC, particularly Gbajabiamila over his anti-democratic moves. The party should be informed in clear terms that its partisan interests should not be escalated for sabotaging our democracy.

“Finally, we reject the so-called zoning template released by the APC’s NWC as null and of no consequence while urging the senators and members-elect to do the same and vote for parliamentary leaders that will be useful in attaining the promises they made to their electorates”.

The groups stressed that if the zoning arrangement of leadership positions in the national assembly stands, occupation of the national assembly would be the order of the day.