A member of the Federal House of Representatives, Peter Edeh, says Nd’igbo should start aiming for top positions in the country, such as Secretary to Government of the Federation, since it has become clear that they have lost core leadership positions in the National Assembly.
He stated this on Thursday against the backdrop that the All Progressives Congress will have the majority in the next NASS and no South-East APC member won a seat in Saturday’s Senatorial and House of Representatives elections.
According to him, since the nation’s president and vice president slots have gone to the North-West and South-West zones respectively, the senate president slot should go to the South-East zone but stated that such won’t be possible, as the rules governing NASS stipulates that only ranking-members assume leadership of both chambers.
Edeh, who is of the APC and an indigene of Ebonyi State, represents Ishielu/Ezza North federal constituency and spoke with our correspondent in Abakaliki, the state capital.
The lawmaker, however, said Igbo leaders were to blame, because he and other Igbo APC members foresaw the situation even before the elections and made it public, “but it was neglected due to selfish and directionless political leadership of the Igbo.”
He said, “There is serious inept leadership in Igbo land as those who parade themselves as Igbo leaders do not see beyond the present and are blighted by religious and ethnic considerations.
“The leaders deceived the people with such deceitful beliefs and this has made the Igbo go down with Goodluck Jonathan despite the fact that it was clear that he would lose the elections.”
Edeh added that the founding members of the APC from Igbo extraction would do all they could to remedy the situation.
“While we do that, we also urge them to move fast to get other top positions in the country, such as Secretary to Government of the Federation, to console itself, seeing that the rules cannot be bent half way to favour them in the National Assembly.”
Meanwhile, the federal lawmaker noted that he would pursue his loss at the election through legal means, as the process was truncated with several irregularities, which denied him and other credible candidates of deserved victory.
“There was no election in the South-East and South-South zones as what transpired was a charade of the democratic process where the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies, especially the military, rigged massively for the Peoples Democratic Party,” he alleged.
