The All Progressives Congress (APC) has been urged to zone the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives to the South South geo-political zone to reflect the principle of federal character required by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in the incoming 8th National Assembly‎.

A pro-democracy group under the aegis of Change Vanguard made the call in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Tayo Bello,‎ in Abuja yesterday to avoid a situation where the three northern zones will produce the President, Senate President‎ and Speaker, House of Representatives. ‎

The statement reads: “Change Vanguard welcomes the positive political revolution brought by the APC and the subsequent election of Muhammadu Buhari as president-elect on March 28, 2015.

“However, Change Vanguard is disturbed by ongoing political developments in the lead-up to the May 29, 2015 handover date. ‎‎As it stands, the APC administration already has the president-elect, Buhari, from the North-west and the vice president-elect, Prof Yemi Osinbajo from the South West.

“Change Vanguard is aware that the position of the Senate President may go to the North Central or North East geo-political zone since the South East previously touted for the Senate presidency failed to produce any APC senator.

“We are disturbed by the reported moves by the APC to zone‎ the position of Speaker, House of Representatives to the North East. “Change Vanguard reminds the‎ APC that‎ if the House speakership position is zoned to the North East geo-political region, it would be a clean sweep for the country’s northern region with the President, Senate president and House Speaker coming from there.

This will be in breach of the constitution and a divisive development. ‎”Change Vanguard recognises the fact that the South East failed to produce any federal lawmaker in the Senate and House of Representatives.

However, ‎th‎e South South geo-political zone returned at least three ranking and qualified APC House members. This is a golden opportunity‎ that the APC must not miss to ensure.”

The group further said: “In the spirit of fairness and adherence to federal character, the position of Speaker, House of Representatives should be zoned to the South South geo-political zone.

“We call on the APC to adhere to the ‘federal character’ principle, which has been enshrined in Nigeria’s Constitution since 1979. The federal character principle ‎ seeks to ensure that appointments to public service institutions fairly reflect the linguistic, ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity of the country.”

The incoming 8th Assembly of the National Assembly is due to be inaugurated on June 6, 2015 and already ‎six APC lawmakers from five geo-political zones of the country are jostling for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives.