JOSTLING has begun to determine who the next speaker of the House of Representatives will be after it emerged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will become the majority party with over 214 members.  

Elections into the 360-seat house were held on Saturday March 28 alongside the presidential and senatorial elections and results shout that the APC has 214 members compared with the Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) 125. These figures do not include the 11 federal constituency seats in Jigawa State, where elections have yet to be conducted. 

When the Independent National Electoral Commission holds elections in Jigawa State, which is an APC stronghold, the party is expected to significantly boost its majority. Three other political parties, the Labour Party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Accord Party, share 10 seats between them. 

So far, the APC is yet to decide which zone will get the speakership but it is expected to be either the southeast of the northeast. Originally, the southeast had been allocated the senate president but as the APC does not have any senator from the zone, this will no longer be possible and the position is now expected to go to the north central geo-political zone. 

Given that the south-south has one APC senator, it is likely to get the deputy senate president, leaving the speakership and deputy to the southeast. Thanks to the presence of Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha in the APC, the party has two members of the House of Representatives from Igboland. 

Unfortunately for the APC, it did not win any seat in Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu and Abia States, nor in Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers and Bayelsa in the south-south but won three in Edo State. However, the APC won all the seats in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi States in the northwest. 

Following the March 28 elections which made the APC the dominant party in control of the House, it will now produce its principal officers including the speaker, deputy speaker, majority leader, chief chip and deputy majority leader. Outgoing deputy majority leader, Hon Leo Ogor, described it as democracy at play but he assured Nigerians that the PDP would bounce back.