Alleges plot to destabilise House leadership
From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) have accused the Minister of State for Labour, Nkiruka Onyeojacha, of engaging in anti-party activities and plotting to destabilise the leadership of the House of Representatives.
The women’s wing of NDRA raised the concerns alleging that the minister was planning to return to the House of Representatives through court processes, eyeing the speakership.
In a statement signed on behalf of the Wing, National Women Leader, NDRA, Clara Nkwocha and Welfare Officer, NDRA, Gloria Kagbara, said the moves of the Minister of State for Labour were at variance in the clamour by Civil Society Organisations for the implementation of the 35 per cent Affirmative Action for Women.
The group said: “Recall that our organisation had issued a communique on August 26, 2023, on a potpourri of issues which included the vexed issue of appointing and recycling persons very well known in the nine states that make up the Niger Delta region, as poli-preneurs into cabinet as ministers.
“As if we knew that today would come, one of such individuals who has not settled down to design a roadmap to end the incessant trade disputes witnessed in the country which her Ministry should be proferring solutions and tackling is Nkiruka Onyeojacha (Minister of State, Labour).
“NDRA Women Wing is alarmed at the haste with which Minister Onyeojacha is running around the courts to ensure she finds her way back to the House of Representatives for a fictitious journey to represent her selfish interest and not that of her constituents, by ensuring the destabilisation of the House Leadership and by extension becoming a cog in the wheel of progress of the Tinubu administration.
“Now, our calculation is that a paltry 19.5 per cent of Mr President’s cabinet ministers are women; what then is the logic behind one of the women sponsoring court cases from behind in order to destabilise her own party the APC and lose that ministerial slot with the dream of returning to the House of Representatives to become Speaker of Parliament.”
The NDRA’s Women Wing expressed disappointment in the self-serving agenda of the minister “aimed only at destabilising the House leadership and throwing a spanner to the works given the camaraderie, partnership and mutual respect existing between the Speaker Tajudeen Abbas-led House of Representatives and the executive arm of government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
The group, however, urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) national leadership to call the minister to order to cease sponsoring court cases that are injurious to the party and capable of dragging the name of President Bola Tinubu through the mud.
The women continued: “Hon. Onyejeocha’s action by our calculations is aimed at creating unnecessary tension between the people of the South-East and the Northwest who were rightfully (based on a number of votes delivered to the party, ceded the speakership position), thus, dreaming to alter the existing political algorithm between the North and South based on the fact that the South already has the Presidency and the Senate Presidency.
“Furthermore, we view the desperation of Onyeojacha to return to the House of Representatives as a gamble taken too far since we all believe that she should have been contented with a ministerial position magnanimously given to her by Mr President.
“Our concern as women is the fact that this might cast a shadow of doubt on the loyalty, integrity and consistency of women from our region as greedy fellows and we are not; thus, the need for this public statement.
“We rather do believe that Mr President and, indeed, the party should look into allowing space for more women to contribute to national development as we reason that as good home managers, we can help cut down the cost of governance and offer greater accountability in public service.
“We appeal for more women to be considered for appointments into boards, agencies and parastatals of government. Women constitute a critical percentage of the voting dynamics in the last general elections in Nigeria and capturing as many numbers as possible can only help deepen our democracy.”
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