By Charles Adingupu
As the battle for the Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives get becomes fiercely, a female, Miriam Odinaka Onuoha from Okigwe North federal constituency of lmo state has joined the race with a pledge to replicate the feat of Nigeria’s first female Speaker, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh who could not survive the banana peel.
Declaring her interest in Abuja, Onuoha said she would engage her male counterparts in a healthy competition to clinch the Speakership of the emerging 10th Assembly.
The female Speaker aspirant who has been elected three consecutive times by her constituency, noted that power is negotiable, adding that in this wise, she has started building bridges across the various blocks in the House by cajoling her colleagues to support her ambition.
Onuoha disclosed that she had nursed the ambition of the Speakership when she was first elected to the House in 2015, but shelved the idea because of lack of experience.
She also disclosed that the ambition made virtually member of the different House committees in to gearner experience and see how to make things work.
Onuoha said that upon assumption of office, she would engage her colleagues in strategic dialogue in order to weed away this chauvinistic tendencies.
It would be recalled that the first female Speaker, Mrs Etteh who occupied the position in 2007, only survived the office for four months, from June to October 2007.
She was booted out of the office following her involvement in about ₦248 million Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC contract for the supply of Solar Power Street light in Cross River State.
Out of the total amount paid for the job, it was reported that the film paid a whooping ₦130 million into Mrs. Etteh’s personal account.
She was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC for the fraudulent act but was later released and subsequently deposed as Speaker of the House.
