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Members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, the leading opposition party in the House of Representatives, have said they supported the election of Mr. Aminu Tambuwal as the Speaker against the South-West candidate, Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, based on merit.
During the election held on June 6, 2011, Tambuwal polled 252 votes to beat Akande-Adeola, who scored 92 votes.
The Minority Leader of the House and Leader of the ACN, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, said tribe played no role in the election “but merit.”
“We were in search of merit. We voted for merit. The election was not about South-West, North nor the East. We wanted a Speaker and we went for the person with merit. It was not ACN versus PDP,” he added.
Gbajabiamila was reacting to comments credited to President Goodluck Jonathan’s Senior Special Assistant, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who alleged that Yoruba ACN members scuttled the ambition of Akande-Adeola.
Okupe spoke in Abuja on Thursday in response to complaints of marginalisation of the South West made by Yoruba leaders in Ibadan, Oyo State, last week.
The Yoruba leaders had complained that Jonathan did not compensate the region with federal appointments in spite of the fact that the Yoruba voted massively for him.
But Okupe, who assured them that the President would address the issue, cited how the PDP zoning arrangement to produce a South-West person as the Speaker of the House was allegedly scuttled by the same Yoruba members in the ACN.
The special assistant said, “The issue of marginalisation of the South-West was a political misadventure and political accident, brought about by the Yoruba themselves.
But, the ACN leader argued that the same Yoruba that Okupe talked about were known to always support merit.
“We voted as a House, we voted for merit. Region was not the issue, it was merit. I am sure that faced with that type of situation again where we have to choose between merit and mediocrity, we will vote for merit again,” he insisted.
The minority leader added that so far, no member of the House had cause to complain over how the speaker had piloted the affairs of the House since June 2011.
Courtesy – Punch Newspaper
