10TH NASS LEADERSHIP: WHO IS AFRAID OF THE RISING PROFILE OF RT.HON MIRIAM ODINAKA ONUOHA?
RE:10TH NASS: Onuoha Not Eligible to Contest Speaker or Deputy Speaker Position– CSO
The attention of the Media Office of Rt.Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha,Member representing Okigwe North Federal Constituency of Imo State and candidate for Speaker in the 10th House of Representatives,has been drawn to a publication in the online edition of the Leadership Newspaper of Sunday,May 28,2023,which appeared under the immediate headline above allegedly authored by one Igho Oyoyo and purpotedly inspired by a Press Conference claimed to have been held in Abuja by a faceless group that goes by the name and style,”Legislative Watch Unit” of the Civil Society Central Coordinating Council (CSCCC).
While we would not have bothered to waste a drop of ink on the tissue of falsehoods and misrepresentations the said piece spunned in its obviously-sponsored attempt to de-market our principal and to put a wedge in the rising profile of the only woman in the race for a Presiding Officer’s position in the leadership configuration of the entire emerging 10th National Assembly,we are, however,concerned that,if that kind of ill-written and badly researched hogwash published under the paid instigation of a fellow lawmaker ,who calls himself “a brother”,but is, actually,a desperado seeking by all means, fair and foul, to win a Presiding Officer’s position in the House of Representatives ,is allowed to go unchallenged ,chances are that there are some gullible members of society who may be wont to swallow the negative narratives wickedly portrayed in that highly-degrading piece as truths or even half truths!
For the avoidance of doubt,Rt Hon.Miriam Odinaka Onuoha,Member representing Okigwe / Onuimo and Isiala Mbano(otherwise known as Okigwe North) Federal Constituency and Chairman, Committee on Disabilities of the House of Representatives, remains a lawmaker who possesses the competence, experience, character,the qualifications,the leadership skills and popularity among her colleagues to aspire to any leadership positions at not only the House of Representatives,but anywhere else across the land. It is, therefore,wicked and uncharitable, to the former Regional Banker and highly experienced and cerebral public and private sector player,to say the least, for anyone to suggest that,”…by the extant House Rules Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha does not qualify to run for any leadership positions in the House of Representatives”.We wonder what ” extant rules” Barr. Anderson Achilike( if he ever exists) and his ill-advised cohorts on this ignoble path of perdition are talking about in their sponsored online piece in the Leadership Newspaper of Sunday,28th May.
We condemn that piece in its entirety and wish to hastily add that,by virtue of Order 2, Rule 3(a) of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives, Nigeria ( 9th Edition, Ordered to be Printed 23rd March 2016),which states,inter alia,” A Member-elect, addressing the Clerk,shall propose another Member-elect *with experience* as member of the National Assembly to be Speaker and shall move that such Member-elect,’Do take the Chair as Speaker of the House of Representatives’ ” the Rt.Hon.Miriam Odinaka Onuoha is qualified to run for the position she is seeking at the National Assembly. The aforequoted rule is the Ranking Rule for lawmakers by virtue of which all returning lawmakers qualify to run for the position of Speaker being , usually, referred to as Primus Interperes!( First Among Equals)
And so we continue to wonder who is afraid of the rising profile of Rt. Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha,the Princess of the 9th Assembly who has continued to dazzle all National Assembly watchers and political pundits since she made her belated,but triumphant entry into the National Assembly on the 27th February 2020? After spending 3 good years and 4 solid months within which our star lawmaker has made appreciable general impacts ,as we shall see shortly,is Hon.Benjamin Kalu ,who struggled all the way to return to the House, winning a paltry number of votes for the Party’s then Presidential candidate,H.E.Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his paid hatched hands saying that he qualifies more than Princess Onuoha for either the Speakership or Deputy Speakership position of the 10th House of Representatives? The question that readily comes to mind is “how?”
To drive home the above position,let us attempt to cursorily juxtapose the personalities and achievements in the 9th House of both Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha and Hon. Benjamin Kalu,who is Chairman, House Committee on Media.Both of them are second-term ranking Members of the current House.While Miriam Onuoha, following an INEC- conducted re-run election, was inaugurated into office on the 27th February 2020 as a member of the 9th Assembly, Benjamin Kalu had earlier come on June 11,2019( some 8 months earlier) as a Member of the same 9th Assembly and whatever claims to the contrary he may seek to make,as is widely known of him, will be a his trademark, barefaced lie.
As stated earlier,what the above implies is that Hon. Miriam Onuoha has been in the House for 3 years and 4 months. Whatever difference that has made in terms of ranking between the two lawmakers cannot only a product of Kalu’s unsettled and anxious imagination! One wonders what a few months’ difference in coming to the 9th House has made between the two Members that would make Hon. Kalu suggest through his media ilk and pawns that Hon. Onuoha does not qualify to run for the leadership of the 10th House “because she has only been in the 9th House for a little over two years”. This lie from the pit of hell is despite the laudable achievements of Hon. Onuoha within the last three years and four months under review and the glowing credentials she has packed under her leadership pouch over the past years.The whole reasoning stands logic on its head.It sounds rather absurd,and coming from a self- acclaimed lawyer,it remains doubtful if,as in all his previous posturing,he is actually who he claims to be.
For Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha,she wants the people to judge her by her competence, experience,character and achievements in and outside the House of Representatives.Her life remains an open book,which anyone can pick up and read;a mirror through which people can from what she has done read what she is capable of doing! She has met all the needed criteria in legislative prowess,in brilliance,in youthful energy and zeal,in political astuteness,in maturity,in gender balancing and equity for the Southeast Zone to present herself to her colleagues for their kind consideration for leadership,yet she remains humble about it all.
Hon. Miriam Onuoha has in the 9th Assembly sat for the required 181 days yearly of full legislative session constitutionally required of every National Assembly in line with Chapter 4,Part I(63) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended),which stipulates that:”The Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for a period of not less than One Hundred and Eighty-one days in a year.” In spite of the fact that this is not one of the set conditions in the guidelines for electing Presiding Officers of the House,Hon. Onuoha has ,all the same,met it. So,upon what pedestal can anyone fault her candidacy for Speakership or Deputy Speakership?
Further more,Hon.Miriam Onuoha is currently the pioneer House Committee Chairman on Disabilities. Her records in the Special Committee,for which she has received several official accolades from both governmental and corporate quarters in high places, are all too-glaring for anyone to ignore. Apart from the above,she has been constantly drawn to many thorny areas of very grave implications and national challenges through which she has in over the last three years in the House proven her leadership mettle.
For instance,let us take just a cursory look at the below:
She served as ADHOC Committee Chairman on the Alleged Breach of Presidential Directives in the Sack of NSITF Staff by the Hon Minister of Labour and Productivity;
-She also served as the Deputy Chairman of the AD HOC Committee on the Relocation of Tank Farms in Residential Places of Ijegun and Others,an interactable, difficult national issue to handle at the time,but which she pulled off with dexterity,using native tart and local diplomatic ideals.
Despite resuming a bit late in the 9th Assembly,we must also be reminded that Hon.Miriam Onuoha was also a Legislative Aide to Late Sen. Benjamin Uwajumogu at the 8th Assembly before returning to her native Imo State in the 2019/2020 General and Re- run elections to win the votes that brought her into the 9th Assembly. As “knowledgeable” as our man,Kalu will always claim to be,the importance of such experience as being a Legislative Aide at the National Assembly before venturing into the House as an elected Member,like Governor Tambuwal,Speaker Dogara,Hon.Nkem-Abonta,Toby Okechukwu,among many high- flying national leaders of today’s Nigeria, will forever be lost on the garrulous Spokesperson of the House,amidst his many highfalutin claims! Every former Legislative Aide retains forever some elements of the institutional memory of the legislature. Perhaps,with all due modesty,this explains why Hon. Onuoha has been able to turn in the level of legislative returns she has made in a little over three years against the scorecards of many, including Kalu, that started out before her at the 9th Assembly House of Representatives.
Hon. Miriam Onuoha has sponsored several bills, 3 of which were before President Buhari for assent. There are also under her kitty notable impactful motions moved, while yet making strong contributions to issues of topical national importance. As for our traducer-turned brother ,we do not know if he can ever boast of a scorecard of this nature, especially,since he has continued to inform all who care to listen that speaking for the House was too engrossing a job on its own to allow a participation in the business of lawmaking. This inability to multitask,to us ,is where our principal holds a global record as the greatest multitasker we have ever known.Perhaps,one will not be wrong to say that this attribute and ability of doing many things at the same time and doing them well,as well, by Hon . Onuoha is something that comes naturally to her as a mother,which was mastered many years ago in the course of combining child- rearing with corporate and public practices,which will, certainly,be a good attribute to anyone who will eventually become Speaker or his Deputy in the 10th House.
Again,let us return to that Leadership Newspaper piece of yesterday, Sunday.Since Hon. Benjamin Kalu has only been in the House also for one tenure like Hon. Miriam Onuoha, what was he trying to insinuate with his sponsored media blitz krieg? Was he trying to insinuate that the South East candidates do not qualify for the Presiding Officers’ positions, especially, against the backdrop that neither he nor anyone from the Zone in the ruling Party that has won a return ticket to the 10th House is a 3rd ,4th or 5th timer like most senior members of the 9th Assembly ?
Despite Kalu’s uncharitable posturing and ingratiating manouvring against a Zone and some well-known leaders from the Zone who had assisted him to climb the political ladder in life,we must emphasize here that the Southeast Zone deserves the consideration of lawmakers in our bid to bring in fairness, equity and balancing to a Zone that has been so marginalized and abandoned in the political equation of our dear country over time. There ought to be an attempt at assuaging this perceived marginalisation and the National Assembly leadership is a good way to start. We consider it curious that an Igbo man should insist that he must be pencilled down for whatever that ought to be allotted to the Southeast Zone at the entire National Assembly or else such a position should be moved to another region! What cheek,what arrogance!
Hon. Miriam Onuoha has acquired verified qualifications and undisputed certificates as B.Sc ( Hons),Estate Management ,from the University of Lagos;a Masters Degree in Environmental Planning and Protection( MEPP) from the University of Abuja, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution from the National Open University of Nigeria. The above are against the claims of our “brother” whose acclaimed qualifications and places from where they have originated are all of questionable nature. Hon. Onuoha was also a committed member of the Petroleum Industry Bill Committee as well as the Constitutional Amendment and Electoral Act ( Amendment ) Bill Committees, respectfully .In all of these positions,as available records would easily show,she proved herself a highly resourceful lawmaker and even,more importantly,a team player. This is a character trait that we have found hard to trace in our so-called brother with whose brotherhood,most Abians will tell you,you do not need an enemy! That is the serial betrayer angling to lead or deputize the leadership of a respectable place like the House of Representatives. Those who doubt this assertion,had better consult his former political benefactors who did everything for him before now.
For many members of the House of Representatives and , indeed,for those who have had cause to relate with Hon.Miriam Onuoha,she is not only qualified, but capable to deliver on the demands of the Office she seeks to have.She remains a highly experienced leader ,who will even be humbler in the job that she seeks to be entrusted with.She relates well with everyone, despite status, tongue or religion.No wonder, therefore, that she is greatly loved by all among her constituents , colleagues and even the new Members- elect. Despite starting out with her quest for Speaker,today Hon. Onuoha is generally more acceptable and tipped as the preferred aspirant for the Deputy Speakership position of the House. It is the result of this that has set her opponent’s camp in disarray to unleash what we are currently seeing in the global media space against her ambition and her person. And to put it mildly,in the days leading to the inauguration of the new Assembly,we cannot but expect more of such campaigns of calumny and character-assasination.She has, however, insisted that she will never lose focus with all that and will keep her eyes perpetually on the big picture. Our humble advise to all traducers of Hon. Benjamin Kalu’s hue and temperament remains , however, to retrace their steps and play politics by the rules of the game.
In conclusion,without doubts,in the last two months or so since the race for Presiding Officers’ positions with regards to the 10th National Assembly commenced in earnest,the Rt. Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha Campaign Organisation has continued to hold itself out as a highly focused and pragmatic platform that never seeks to join issues with anyone,let alone be caught on the wrong side of decorum with any lawmakers-elect, especially,in the knowledge that the National Assembly election is an internal activity among colleague lawmakers-elect,who ought to be working with the sole vision to serve our dear country at a level requiring a lot of tart, maturity, dignity, intelligence as well as humility!
The foregoing has always informed the need for us, in line with the noble qualities of our principal, to maintain an avowed stoical silence against any issues that might send the wrong signals about who we are. But,alas,in the past few weeks,the media space is starting to breathe with all manner of write-ups,innuendos, mudslinging and invectives against the highly intelligent,mature,humble and easygoing woman,who has continued to worm herself steadily in the last three years into the hearts of many lawmakers, Constituents and other national leaders across the country,using her signature banners of hard work,sheer brilliance, effervescent charisma and, again, humility,the temptation is to throw back darts for darts,but we have vowed not wrestle with any pig that wants to leave the wring in dirty apparels. However,there is always a limit to virtues like patience. We, therefore, count on the understanding of all co- contestants for different leadership positions of the 10th House to realize that this is a quest for national service and re-iterate our call on them to note that the quest for positions will, eventually, end , but the acrimony that may be left behind may endure longer than we may have ever envisaged.
God bless the National Assembly
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Signed
Media Office, Rt. Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha Campaign Organisation for Speaker 2023.