NASS Leadership: North-Central Kicks Over Marginalisation

• Protesters threaten occupation of APC secretariat, disruption of party’s activities

BY VICTOR BUORO AND SEGUN ADEBAYO – Ahead of the 10th National Assembly inauguration, the North- Central geo-political zone is up in arms over its perceived marginalisation by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), warning that only the Speakership position will assuage frayed nerves in the region.

Bent on demonstrating the anger and seriousness of their demands, some protesting groups from the Zone, popularly called the “Middle Belt”, almost disrupted Monday’s crucial meeting of the Party’s National Working Committee (NWC) but for the quick response by the security agencies.

Acting on the platform of APC North-Central Stakeholders, some aggrieved Party members and protesters, stormed the National Secretariat to register their displeasure over the alleged diminishing of their region in the zoning of the Senate presidency.

For them, the North-Central zone is not ready to accept anything less than the House of Representatives Speakership as compensation in the spirit of fair play, equity and the existing federal character arrangement.

Carrying placards with several inscriptions such as: “It’s time to reward North Central”; “We will resist marginalisation”; “APC must Reward Our Hard Work”; “North Central deserves Speakership position”; and “We say NO to imposition of Speaker,” among others, the protesters were however prevented from disrupting ongoing NWC meeting by stern-looking policemen on alert at the partyNational headquarters’ entrance.

Engaging newsmen on their mission, Spokesperson for APC North Central Stakeholders, Salihu Ibrahim, described as outrageous the alleged scheming that zoned the North Central out of contention for the Senate leadership.

Ibrahim said the APC Leadership would be most unfair and selfish if it fails to gift North Central the Speaker position given all the efforts and votes the zone mobilized for Tinubu’s victory.

According to him; “Our purpose of storming the APC secretariat today is to see the APC National Chairman. We want to ask him what is good for the North Central after much contribution to the growth, development and achievement of APC today. But to my greatest surprise, we learnt that North Central is not considered for the Senate president and Deputy Senate president zoning.

“The party is not even seeking to compensate us with Speaker, which from every indication is going to be zoned to the North East. That is the height of marginalisation.

“It is disappointing to know that this is happening under the watch of the National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who is also from the North Central. So, we want to ask him, what is good for us in the North Central? What was the yardstick or parameter that APC is deploying for the sharing formula of principal offices?”

Further advancing their case, the APC North Central Stakeholders said; “After all, it is on record that we contributed a lot tirelessly. We all have them on record. That was why we came out here to protest this marginalisation. We need to remind all of us who are members of APC and the people of Nigeria that the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, we are all celebrating today emerged as the flag bearer of APC based on the ideology of the party zoning the presidency to the South.

“It is outrageous to discover that we are not going to be given the chance for Senate president, Deputy Senate president and even the speaker. We cannot take this. That’s why we won’t leave here today until we hear from our father, the national chairman of the APC. We are therefore asking that the Speaker of the House be zoned to the North Central.”

Following in tow, a second group of protesters the Zone stormed the Secretariat with their drums, demanding that the party’s leadership must address the marginalisation and unfair treatment of the North Central zone

Identifying themselves as North Central Democratic Coalition (NCDC), the group said there will be no backing down on the Speakership battle in the interest of fairness and peace.

The NCDC Leaders, Ben Amodu, who addressed newsmen on their demands, explained thus; “We have come here in our numbers to demand the zoning of the Speakership position in the North Central.

“A non-action implies that the region would be left out of the scheme of things because the Vice President is from the North-East and the North-West is in strong contention for Senate leadership position.”

Similarly, refusing to be deterred by heavy downpour of the moment, another group of demonstrators, who tagged themselves as Coalition of APC Geo-Political Zones Support Group, were also on ground to present their demands to the ruling Party’s NWC.

Though weather beaten, the dogged placards displaying demonstrators vowed to take their protest rallies to all relevant quarters as a way of pressing home their demands.

Their Spokesperson said the exigency of these times demand that the APC Leadership and the President-elect avoid obvious pitfalls witnessed before the 2023 general and embrace a new order that not only accommodates all interest but clearly reflect an equitable distribution of the NASS positions to the “handicapped” zones and interest areas.