Date Published: 09/06/11

Jonathan ungrateful to the South East Zone -Ebonyi APGA Boss

The Ebonyi state chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) Mr. Jerry Obasi, has faulted the decision of the hierarchy of the peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) which zoned the positions 0f the Secretary to the government of the Federation (SGF) and the deputy senate president to the south East geo-political zone.

    Mr. Obasi said the positions were not commensurate with the huge contributions of the zone to the electoral success of President Goodluck Jonathan in the April 16 Presidential election.

    In an interview with newsmen    in Abakaliki, the APGA chairman described the South East zone as one of the three tripods on which the Nigeria Federation stands on, stressing that the people of the zone deserves a better position in this dispensation, not less than a senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives.

  “If you take a look at the top five position in the federal structure, there is nobody from the south East. In 1999-2007, we were number three , we have maintained a steady fall due to the machinations of those who wish to continue the marginalization of the zone. People from the South East have made significant contributions to the development of Nigeria. We deserve a better deal. Jonathan is simply unfair to the zone. The President is ungrateful for our support.

 “Since the south East gave a massive vote to support President Jonathan than even the South West who was allocated the speakership seat, we deserves to be compensated adequately, and not with the position of deputies. Where do you place the deputy senate president, Ike Ekwerenmadu or the deputy speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, in the scheme of things? he asked, rhetorically, they are just office holders with no real power”

      When reminded that the President    appointed the former senate President, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, as the SGF, Obasi said that the holder of the position always serve at the pleasure of the president who can fire him at his discretion.

  “Anyim is a good choice for the position. For me, the position of the SGF is not much more than a “tea maker” for the President who can hire and fire him at will. He is just like a secretary to the president. The South East should have been given such position as Senate president or Speaker of the House of Representatives, not deputies”

Obasi also berated the PDP for not using somebody from the zone to fill the vacant position of the PDP national chairmanship to serve out the tenure of Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, stressing that the people of the zone has continued to suffer marginalization in the Nigerian polity.

     Obasi also disclosed that in the last dispensation, the position of the Speakership position was supposed to have been zoned to the southeast since the South West just had a shot at the presidency, but for Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s manipulations, imposing himself as the PDP Board of Trustee (BOT) chairman. He charged the party to compensate the zone adequately.