A South East youth-based organisation, Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) has rejected the micro-zoning of the position of deputy speaker of the House of Representatives to the South East.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) recently announced that the position had been micro-zoned to the zone and that Abia State member-elect, Hon Benjamin Kalu, has been pencilled down for the position.
Reacting to the development, COSEYL, in a press release signed by the president-general and publicity secretary, Hon Goodluck Ibem and Comrade Okey Nwaoru, respectively, stressed that it was insulting to zone such a position to the South East.
The group also submitted that Kalu still has his victory being contested and cannot represent the Igbo nation.
According to them, while the political goal and aspiration of Ndigbo are beyond the post of the Senate President, “we cannot identify with Benjamin Kalu, not to talk of endorsing him to represent the political interest of the entire South East as a federal parliamentarian holding the post of the deputy speaker.”
“For emphasis, the Igbo are a major ethnic group in Nigeria, also one of the tripodal arrangements upon which the nation itself stands. We cannot be reduced to the background by the APC-led Federal Government, no matter the scheming or agenda.