Speakership race: Analyst makes case for Idris Wase

By Christiana Ekpa

As the race for the top job of the Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives gathers momentum, albeit underground consultations following the Presidential and National Assembly elections, an Abuja based social affairs analyst, Cham Faliya Sharon has called on the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to support the aspiration of incumbent Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase to emerge.

Sharon made the call in a statement she issued on Sunday and made available to journalists in Abuja, noting that the APC should as a matter of reward for loyalty and faith in its ideologies, zone the position to the North Central, and support Hon. Idris Wase as it preferred choice for the Speakership seat.

The social commentator who expressed admirations for the party’s exploits at the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections noted that “an overwhelming majority of Nigerians have kept faith with the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) by handing the party continuity in the Presidency and a comfortable majority in both Chambers of the National Assembly.

“For any honest observer, as well as any good student of Nigeria’s developmental history, the party’s triumph at the polls is well-earned because the party’s achievements in office, especially in the provision of infrastructure and growth of local productivity, are unprecedented. And these achievements are the result of the progressive collaboration and support given the Executive branch by the leadership and members of the National Assembly who are majorly of the APC.

“With the party set to commence another journey of leading the country into another phase of development, and considering also that certain key national leadership offices will be zoned to respective geopolitical zones, it becomes imperative to call on the national leadership of the APC to, as a matter of principle and honour, zone the position of the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 10th Assembly to the North Central geopolitical zone, and if it does that, it should also kindly throw its weight behind Rt. Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase, the current Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, to become the next Speaker.

“Zoning the Office of Speaker to the North Central region and supporting Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase to occupy the office should be considered an exercise of recognition and reward for loyalty and sacrifice. Since the 2015 general elections to date, a significant section of the North Central region has maintained an unalloyed support for the APC, and it will be just and noble to appreciate this support and loyalty by ceding this important national office to them so that the party can expand and maintain its hold in the region.