Intense Campaign For Anambra Speaker

Anambra State House of Assembly will hold its valedictory sitting on Tuesday, June 9. Then on June 12, a new House will be inaugurated immediately after which a new helms man or woman to preside over the House as Speaker will be elected. But already, subtle campaigns by interested candidates for the plum job have started. 

Members of the House spoken to outlined the qualities the Speaker of the House is supposed to possess. These include: experience, integrity, knowledge and ability to offer leadership. Added to these is communication skils. The majority leader of the outgoing House, Hon. Harford Oseke who won a return ticket said that for one to be elected as Speaker, he or she must first be a high ranking member of the House. This is where experience comes in; experience of legislative matters and other things. Oseke also said the Speaker should be seen as a leader who should be able to know what to do in all circumstances and should be of sound mind and good health.

Also, to Hon. Valentine Ayika, the minority Whip, the speaker must be a team player; he or she must be credible, must be transparent to relate to his or her colleagues messages gotten from the Executive. He or she should be trusted.
In his contribution, Hon. Chugbo Enwezor, Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary lists qualities of a speaker as excellence, knowledge, competence, integrity and character. Enwezor noted that the Speaker must be trusted by his colleagues and should be knowledgeable to interpret the law as well as know the trends in law making and be able to guide his or her colleagues in the House.  Hon Enwezor added that the Speaker must also have commnication skills to be able to reresent the House outside the state and contribute effectively when he or she represents the Hose outside.
Nevertheless, House Rule 3:2 stipulates that the Speaker shall have had successful four-year tenure or more as a state legislator.
However, two things in recent times guide the election of a Speaker of Anambra House of Assembly. One, is Executive involvement. Ayika stressed this when he noted that “election of a Speaker is not devoid of Executive interference. The person running for the office, he noted must be one the Governor is at home with. He must be a team player. This factor has had far-reaching effect on the state House of Assembly. It has given the House a measure of stability because with the House and Governor on the same page, both government and the House run smoothly. But such cooperation has also had negative influence on the House. Time was when citizens troop to the House of Assembly to listen to motions and Bills being argued by the members, but not any more.  This is because these days, deliberations of the House most often have signature tune of the Executive. It may have made things easier for the legislators and engendered peace in the state. But that practice has diminished the status and integrity of the House.
Another major factor is zoning. In the case of Anambra state, since the Governor comes from Anambra North Senatorial district and his Deputy from Anambra Central Senatorial district, the Speaker is expected to come from Anambra South Senatorial district. In this case, six returning legislators: two ladies and four men are eligible for the job. They are: in their ranking order: Hon. Princess  Nikky Ugochukwu (Orumba South) a third timer, Hon. Ikem Uzoezue (Aguata II), Hon. Ikechukwu Ume (Aguata I), Hon. Romanus Obi (Orumba North), Rita Maduagwu (Nnewi South II) and Hon. Kingsley Iruba (Nnewi South). All the listed legislators belong to the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and except Hon. Ugochukwu who is returning to the House for the third time, the rest are coming back for the second time. They are all qualified to occupy the top position of Speaker of the House. Hon. Nikky Ugochukwu, daughter of wealth and renowned industrialist,
M.N.Ugochukwu and Chairman of Committee on Finance and Appropriation is said to be solid and has been offering some assistance using her late father’s connection to get the state connected. But she is not known to have interest in contesting for the leadership of the House. The next is Hon. Rita Maduagwu, chairman, House Committee on Education is a two timer and contributes to debates in the House. However, the mention of her name as a legislator favoured for the job by Governor Willie Obiano recently by a national newspaper raised eye-brows. This is because the incumbent Speaker is a Hon. Princess Clare Nwaebili. It is known that leadership of Anambra House of Assemby by women have always attracted ugly rumours as to their ‘informal’ relationship with the state chief executives and that has greatly diminished the stature of members. The public opinion in Anambra is, therefore, that much as the tenure of Hon. Nwaebili was stable and the House enjoyed robust relationship with the Executive, there should be a change this time around.  In that case, the race is left for Hon. Ikechukwu Ume alias (IK. Rushia) who is the Chief Whip. He is doing well in the House. So also is Hon. Kingsely Iruba and who is chairman of Committee on Transport.  Among the lot, Hon. Ikem Uzoezie can be said to tower high. A scion of academic family, Hon. Uzoezie was exposed early in life to tackle leadership challenges. As a staff of European Union (EU) Programmes, he participated in training newly elected legislators in 2008 and 2010 long before he became a legislator himself. His communication skills and interpersonal relation with his colleagues and outsiders is superb. He has good understanding of the procedures of the House and this makes him dominate debates in the House. Hon. Uzoezie is also the oldest member of APGA among the lot. He joined the party in 2004. Others joined much later: Ugochukwu joined in 2010 after dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Maduagwu in 2012 from Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and Ume in 2012 from PDP among others
If the qualities of a Speaker should include individual qualities, performance of each legislator and experience even outside the legislative duties without the Executive insisting on certain individuals, then it will be easy for members of the House to choose who they want. Nevertheless, not all high ranking legislators of Anambra South extraction has ambition to be Speaker, though like in every case in a power play, no one will reject such position if by chance, the favoured candidates spoil their own show.