APC will review contentious zoning plan for 10th Assembly: Umahi

As senators and members of the house of representatives continued to vehemently push back against it, the governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, declared that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) would review the contentious zoning template for the 10th National Assembly.

Any Nigerian who has been purposefully left out of the country’s larger plans cannot be expected to be patriotic, according to the governor of Ebonyi State, who is also a senator-elect.

Umahi said that Nigeria should be seen as a country where the leadership must sit down and make a deliberate decision to do things differently while responding to questions from journalists at the ongoing induction program for members-elect of the National Assembly organized by the National Assembly and National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Abuja.

He asserted that in order to build a country that would be based on equity, fairness, and justice for the overall interest of all the regions of the nation, all six geopolitical zones of the country must engage in dialogue where each zone should be asked what it wants, the problems affecting the zones, and the way forward.

“Democracy is all about finding solutions to all newly arising conflicts. Unavoidable controversies have resulted from our party’s stance. The party would have adopted any position that would have sparked debates or criticism.

“I believe that the party and our leadership have the ability and wisdom to work out any issues that may arise. I have no doubt that they are working on it.

“I’ve said that patriotism should serve as the nation’s baseline. However, if you are being deliberately left out, you cannot be asked to show patriotism. The leadership must take a seat and consciously decide to change the way things are done in order for the nation to be seen as one.

“We need to consult with each zone to learn what their needs are. Discussion and conversation must be sparked. I think that will enable us to solve whatever the issue in the regions may be.

“Our leadership as well as the three branches of the government must be able to sit down and communicate. Nigeria must be prioritized, and we must decide to do so.

Everyone will start to think of this country as their own and start putting Nigeria first because they are a part of the Nigeria project because that is the foundation, built on equity, fairness, and justice.

Without equity, fairness, and justice, there can never be patriotism in this nation. To be patriotic, I must ensure that my own community is upheld, which is why many people refrain from returning to the National Assembly because projects are not carried out in their best interests.

“The public views lawmakers as though they were in charge of carrying out projects,” Accordingly, there ought to be a way to have executive projects located in their regions, so you can use that to leverage on coming back and not squander this experience we gather from here, Umahi said.