By. Popoola, VOA.
It's not a spelling error. I really mean 'workchop' and not 'workshop'. Just as 'workshop' is a combination of two words - 'work' and 'shop', meaning a shop where you work, 'workchop' is equally a combination of two words - 'work' and 'chop'.In normal English, 'chop' means to slice or hack something into smaller portions, but in our own homegrown English (pidgin English), chop means 'to eat food'. So, 'I wan chop' will imply 'I want to eat food.'
God instructs that any one who doesn't work should not 'chop' (). Stretching this further will mean any one who works small should 'chop' small and any one who works big should 'chop' big. This principle of 'workchop' should guide what is currently going on in APC regarding sharing of offices in the 10th National Assembly to be inaugurated next month.
Elections in Nigeria, just like in any other country that practices the 'winner takes all' system, is a 'war'. Whether the contestants and players in the field say it out (like OBJ and OBI), or don't say it out (like BAT and ATIKU), elections is 'war'. It's a battle for the trophy.After a war, the winner, as a reward for victory, has right to the spoils of war. This is the case in Nigeria today. After election 'war', and a winner has emerged according to the INEC declared results, it's time for the winning party (or group), APC in this case, to share the spoils of war - political offices.
In sharing these political offices, the principle of 'workchop' must come to play. For now, the political offices available for sharing are the next top four (4) political offices in NASS after the first two positions (President and Vice President) have been filled. Interestingly, there are just four (4) geopolitical zones to share these four (4) spoils of war.The office of Deputy Speaker shared to the South East APC is a good and fair deal. SE APC worked small, even very small, for the federal success of APC and deserves small 'chop' from the spoil. My only grouse is that the only female aspirant in the mix, who incidentally comes from the SE region should have been considered to give a sense of gender inclusivity.
If the principle of 'workchop' should be strictly followed, the North West APC, considering what the region brought to the table of APC's success, deserves nothing but the office of Senate President, being the next biggest office after that of the President and Vice President. But the party is constrained, and rightly so, by religious balance consideration, to go southward for Senate Presidency. Between SS and SE, the SS APC deserves to have the Senate Presidency far above SE APC simply by applying the principle of 'workchop'.
Having justifiably denied NW APC Senate Presidency, the question is which is bigger or higher between Deputy Senate Presidency (DSP) and Speakership? Whichever is higher should automatically go to NW APC. As a matter of fact, going by the work done by the NW APC, as reflected in the number of votes the region brought, asking for both DSP and Speakership, may not be deemed too much, but that will leave a whole region, North Central, with nothing.
Going by the principle of 'workchop', is APC NWC saying NC APC didn't do any work, and as such deserves no 'chop' at all? That can't be true. NC APC, as a matter of fact, even worked more than SS APC and SE APC, and can't come out of this sharing formula with nothing.Since many other spoils of war will still be shared, NW APC can still be further compensated, but for now, in the true spirit of fairness and based on the principle of 'workchop', the NC APC should have whichever one is left of DSP and Speakership after NW APC has taken it's pick.
If the above considerations are adopted, based on the principle of 'workchop', justice would have been done to all geopolitical zones that worked for the victory of APC in the last general elections.
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