The All Progressives Congress (APC) consensus candidate for the position of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives for the incoming 10th National Assembly, Ben Kalu has made a case for the South-East region of the country.
According to him, the region should be included in the scheme of APC’s activities to prevent poor vote outcome in 2027.
OsunDaily News learnt that the Kalu, who is the lawmaker representing Bende Federal Constituency in Abia State, made this submission when he featured on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, programme.
It would be recalled that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC announced zoning of the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, and in their arrangement, Godswill Akpabio from the South-South was picked for Senate President and Barau Jibrin from the North-West was endorsed as his deputy
While for the House of Representatives, the party picked Tajudeen Abbas from the North-West for the Speakership position and Kalu from the South-East as his deputy.
A development that has aroused controversies from other aspirants of the positions and from other quarters since last week.
However, justifying zoning the position of the deputy Speaker to the south-east, Kalu said “When you talk about nation building you forget about sentiments, you forget about emotions and look at the strongest argument and the strongest argument here is how do we make a diversity sensitive leadership, nation-building effort that will incorporate all the beautiful efforts of all the diverse part of the country coming together to work for what we peach? It’s by unity, peace and progress.
“You may recall that in the last four years, the South-East was not holding any of the presiding officers’ position and it has impacted on this election, among other things. I can assure you, if you neglect South-East again, a whole zone in such sensitive position, then you battle again in 2027, that is a big risk for any great planner to take.
“If you start now to plan and adopt this spirit of inclusion, South-East is going to yield a better harvest than what was yielded before.”
