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The North Central Elders’ Forum, NCEF, has called on the All Progressives Congress, APC, and President Muhammadu Buhari to zone the speakership of the 9th House of Representatives to the North-Central.

            This call was made by NCEF Chairman, Alhaji Muhammadu Ari Gwaska, when he addressed a press conference in Abuja, yesterday. He said the APC should imbibe the traditions of party democracy, which appropriates the spoils of office when elections are contested and won. Gwaska noted that the North-Central is too strategic to be relegated in the power-sharing equation in Nigeria. He said that zoning the position to the South-West would be very unfair to the North-Central. He argued that the North West, since the Second Republic has continued to play a strategic role in representative government and has been the bridge between the northern and the southern parts of the country. He maintained that the North-Central deserves the speakership based on the number of votes it contributed to the re-election of President Buhari during the last Presidential and National Assembly elections. He said, To forestall the rebellion act that upset the apple cart in 2015 which produced the Senate President and the Speaker from North-Central and North-East respectively, which never had our backing, the national leadership of the APC must ensure that it does not inflict a sufficient damage on itself, which consequences can be better imagined in the selection and election of principal officers of the 9th House of Representatives. The North Central has demonstrated its loyalty and strength to the APC both in 2015 and 2019. In 2019, we contributed 2,441,013 votes to President Buhari compared to South West’s votes of 2,036,450.