THE decision to zone the leadership of the House of Representatives to the Northwest was influenced by the contribution of the party members in the region to the 2023 presidential election, according to Bayo Onanuga, member of the media subcommittee of the Presidential Transition Council.

Onanuga said the All Progressives Congress (APC) allocated the deputy senate president and speakership positions to the Northwest to compensate for the significant number of votes the geopolitical zone polled for the party in the election.

Onanuga, the media director of the now defunct APC presidential campaign council, said this in an interview the Daily Trust published on Sunday, May 14. 

In the APC zoning plan, the northwest geopolitical zone was allocated a leadership position each in the Senate and House of Representatives. The party endorsed Tajudeen Abass from the Northwest as the House of Representatives speaker,  and Benjamin Kalu from the Southeast as his deputy.

For the senate, the party endorsed Godswill Akpabio from the Southsouth geopolitical zone as senate president, and Barau Jibrin from the Northwest as deputy senate president. 

Onanuga emphasised that without the Northwest, the party would have lost the election, so they should be compensated for their contribution.

“The Northwest gave the APC the largest number of votes in the last election and I think it is fair that they are compensated. Without the Northwest, there is no way the APC would have won the election. So, as far as APC is concerned, you have to recognise that and compensate them accordingly.

“Of course, they brought almost 2.7 million votes, but you know they lost quite a number of states, including the governorship in Kano and Zamfara.

“They are for local reasons, not because the people there didn’t like the APC. I think the Zamfara people had a problem with Governor Bello Matawalle, but generally, the party did very well in the Northwest,” he said.

Nigeria’s 10th National Assembly will be inaugurated on June 13 and shortly after the inauguration, members of the national assembly will elect new presiding officers.

According to the election results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the ruling APC retained the majority in the Senate and House of Representatives seats, with 57 and 162 members, respectively.