As the tussle for the leadership positions of the incoming 10th National Assembly gets hotter, a member representing Onuimo/Isiala Mbano/Okigwe Federal Constituency in Imo State, Princess Onuoha has come out to reveal why she is confident of emerging as the next Speaker of the House of Representatives.
OsunDaily News reports that Onuoha, who is the first and only female lawmaker so far to have declared her intention for the leadership race, said she has the numbers to make her winner of the race.
According to the Imo State lawmaker, she has the support of 198 members-elect of the green chamber to emerge the next Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 10th National Assembly.
Onuoha who vowed to break the record after Patricia Etteh, the first female Speaker of the House between June and October 2007, said that politics is not about making noise.
Speaking on Channels Television, She argued that she has the requirement to be the next Speaker of the green chamber because she has fought and defeated men in the general elections and she is ready to repeat the feat.
The lawmaker said “I have about 198 members whom I have talked to and I have got their ultimate buy-in in my kitty. Politics is not about making noise.
“I have paid my dues,” the APC lawmaker stated, adding that “my people said I have raised the bar of leadership.”
Onuoha, who won her re-election bid, explained that though the Labour Party won in her state, Imo, but she delivered to her party’s flag bearer, Bola Tinubu at the the February 25 presidential poll.
She clarified that she wasn’t in the speakership race because she is from South-East, but because she wants to serve the nation.
Onuoha said, “I am not in the race because of the zoning factor. I am here and I have offered myself to serve the Nigerian people and offered them robust and dynamic leadership.
“The South-East has been solidly behind the APC. I have been a solid member of the All Progressives Congress. I put my billboard in the South-East running campaigns alongside Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I know the backlash I got from the people yet I was able to garner over 44,000 votes for myself and for the presidential election. So, we delivered.
“My federal constituency won. I delivered and I have the evidence. My people voted because they didn’t want to take a chance by voting another party…I have brought participatory governance to my people; politics of inclusivity.
“So, you want to say I will not compete and contest alongside other candidates who might not have delivered? South-East is not the only zone who did not come up as expected. We have the north where the NNPP also made inroads.”
