Rt. Hon. Orok Otu Duke, two term deputy speaker and two term adviser to the speaker of the Cross River state House of Assembly has said that the Southern senatorial district of the state may never have the opportunity to produce the speaker of the House of Assembly. AseHappen can authoritatively report.


Chief Orok Duke disclosed this in a telephone conversation with our reporter, Friday stating that for the sake of peace, justice and harmony the South will always have the option of producing the deputy speaker, deputy governor or governor, but never the Speaker of the state House of Assembly.


Chief Duke who hinged his submission on the failed Calabar - Ogoja accord said going by the existing arrangements in the state, the South will always have the executive option of either producing the Governor or the deputy governor as such there's no how it can produce the speaker.


"With the current arrangement, the South can never produce the speaker of the House of Assembly, as far as the south will always have the governor or the deputy governor. That's just the bottom line and we must face the reality.

There's no point in time Cross River State will produce a governor or deputy governor that will not come from the South, never. So south must be able to choose, do we want a deputy governor or speaker, south will always go for deputy governor. Which is an executive position.




He however, argued that the South actually has the numerical strength to at any point in time produce a Speaker of the House of Assembly and the deputy governor at the same time, but that will be at the expense of distorting the harmonious peaceful zoning Pattern existing in the state and at the detriment of the future generation.



He made it clear that for obvious reasons, the south will always prefer to produce a deputy governor and a deputy speaker than only a Speaker, because the deputy governorship office is an executive slot while speakership in Nigeria is more or less a  rubber stamp in the hands of the executive.


"The moment the South says they need speaker, they must loss deputy governor. Which is not want they don't want.
And in Nigeria the way the speaker operate with virtually no power, no control of funds, no ability to appoint, so no particular person given that pride of place will ever want to substitute deputy governorship for speaker. The highest the south can do is add chief whip to deputy speaker". He advised. 

"Based on numerical strength, the south has all it takes to take both the deputy governorship and the speakership slot but do we need to do that? But if we do that we will be permanently be atomistic and at war with  ourselves."

"We might topple the apple crown, gain whatever we want, but what of the next generation? So we should think beyond the present, we should be able to die in peace and let the next generation run the state without so much acrimony and disharmony. Anybody that tries that is at his own peril."

"Be rest assured the South will produce the next Governor of the state come 2023. That is nonnegotiable". He concluded.


Speaking further, Duke who is currently the Chairman, Cross River Sports commission, said the odds for speakership falls between Ikom and Yakurr local governments areas.