I Wanted A Yoruba Speaker But Some Were Selfish - Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday declared his regret not making a Yoruba politician the Speaker of the House of Representatives after 2011 general elections.

He was speaking at the Yoruba Unity Summit with the theme: “National Development: Wither the Yoruba,” which held at the Oduduwa Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

Jonathan said that he is aware of that the South west is a key player and is still sad by the unfortunate incident in 2011 when his desire to repay the Yoruba for their support for him was lost.

Mulikat Akande had gone against current Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal but lost because of inadequate support from her Southwestern colleagues.

The President said: “I thank you all for the support in the past elections. One of the problems I faced in the National Assembly is that I felt the right thing should be done because our party, the PDP, has a formula.

“We have six geo-political zones in the country and when the President emerges from one of the geo-political zones, the Vice-President emerges from another geo-political zone, the rest core offices, the Senate President, the Speaker, Secretary to Federal Government, the chairman of the party must come from different geo-political zones.

“The idea is that, whenever we are distributing board positions and some of these appointments, whenever we are appointing ministers, all these people sit to take decisions. In that case we want all the geo-political zones to be in the inner caucus that take critical decisions.

“The last time, it was difficult for me because I insisted that the Southwest must get the Speaker. Of course, I couldn’t go through with it because some of us within the Southwest didn’t want it, based on some personal reasons. I am still suffering from that till today.

“That is one of the reasons the leaders said, this time around, we must work collectively so that whatever position is zoned to the Southwest, we should get that position. People should not rob it from us.”

Jonathan has been having problems with the current speaker, who has switched party to the opposition APC.