Parliament Speaker Theo Zurenuoc

That was the Speaker’s farewell message to the retiring East Sepik Governor and Papua New Guinea’s first Prime Minister in Parliament today.         

“Even my own intense, will fall short of describing the man, Papua New Guineans, young and old came to know as the ‘Father of the Nation’ or papa bilong kantri,” Zurenuoc said.

“A man, whose impeccable accomplishments and reputation towers above all of us individually and collectively.    

Speaker Theo Zurenuoc made the statement in Parliament this afternoon, in the first sitting of 2017.      

The term of the current Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio will expire on February 24, 2017.   

“He assumed office on 25 February 2011, the date of which he took diligence, oath and declaration of loyalty,” Zurenuoc said.

“Parliament must vote a new Governor-General in a period of three months before the completion of the governor-general (term), therefore in line with requirements of the Organic Law on the Nomination of Governor-General.”