A former member of the House of Representatives from Niger State, Hon. Abubakar Chika, has described the zoning of the National Assembly leadership positions as undemocratic and a dangerous trend for the survival of democracy in Nigeria.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, Chika said: “The legislature is an independent arm of government, and they most choose among themselves. Neither the President nor the party has the right to dictate who should lead the National Assembly.”
He continued: “The National Assembly like any other arm of government is independent to decide who will lead as an arm of government, so I don’t see any reason that either the party or anyone will micro zoned or nanozone, so you can’t microzone the legislature. This is undemocratic and very dangerous to democracy and I don’t think this will fly”
“I have been speaking about the injustice we have been having within the APC and it is not because I have an interest in Aliyu Betara but because I am speaking as a former legislator who doesn’t want to see that arm of government being bastardized in dictatorship.
“APC has been cantankerous because of the advice that has been coming from so many quarters. You can see even from sharing of seats. How did you exclude the North Central, so I think it is a biased thing. Somebody just think I must make this person whether he is going to cover up for me”
“But I think the President-elect is an honourable man and should think beyond Lagos State, this is Nigeria and not Lagos State House of Assembly and we have a National Assembly consisting of people from everywhere and with different character. APC should know that they do not have the majority particularly in the House of Representatives; the minority is greater in number and with that you can’t dictate.”
He further said that “the law did not say APC member-elect must be the speaker but the law says, member must choose among themselves so if APC becomes very careless as a single party even as a majority other people will take it up, so APC should have a rethink because the manner at which we are going, we are not in a military administration, we are in a democratic administration.”
“If you cannot allow zoning to take place because you want to balance certain things then you cannot micro-zone the position of the national assembly, this is carelessness. And Mr President if you want to govern well you should be able to take a stand right from now.
“Anybody who knows Betara will know he is generous, empathy and humility personified. No human being will come to Betara with an issue and he will not look at the issue though I have never gone to him for any assistance but we need a National Assembly where when someone served and we know his capacity should not be given even the current speaker call him head boy because he has seen how he gathered members and carry them in the national Assembly”
“Betara often put himself in the position of every human being he meets, he is back in the house for the 5th time and if you can do this without losing election I think there is something in you. He has led Army, Defence, NDIC, Banking and now Appropriation Committee no complain” “The speaker calling him Head boy means somebody who is a leader, I am shock that the speaker today is only with one person who is unpopular”
He recalled that Gbajabiamila created an office for the welfare of former members, but that office was abandoned, it was Betara who singlehandedly took care of that office so you can’t tell me that such person does not have the quality and pedigree to be the Speaker.
“If the issue of zoning has been done democratically they would have carried other contenders along. All the major contestant have said that there is no way the party will zone the Speaker without carrying the major contender along even excluding the north central where they have over 40 percent of the total vote in the North. And if they could do this they deserve to be considered”
The former lawmaker further said: “Some people think they have Tinubu in their pocket and have started the cabal that will be this and that. This is not Lagos State, this is Nigeria and Lagos is just a State in Nigeria.
“We have started seeing a regional agenda to divide the people because at the Betara declaration none of the South West lawmakers came. This cannot fly. We need to start on a good footing, if we continue like this our suspicion, our apprehension is coming to reality”