Ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the 10th National Assembly (NASS), there are strong indications that there are strong indications that politicking and intense horse-trading would dog the jostle for Senate president’s position.
This is mainly because indications have emerged that despite the President-elect, Bola Tinubu’s endorsement of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the President of 10th Senate, some political heavyweights from the North have other plans.
The 10th National Assembly is likely to be confronted by two tough puzzles, including resolving the issue of religious balance via zoning and accommodating the interests of the North, which claims the political IOU of supporting the emergence of a Southern Presidency.
Recall that a meeting was held at the Defence House, Abuja, between the President-elect, Tinubu, and prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC), as well as select floor functionaries of the National Assembly, last Friday.
During the consultative meeting, which was attended by the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu; President of the Ninth Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and his Deputy, Omo-Agege, and Speaker House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Tinubu purportedly endorsed Akpabio and Tajudeen Abass as his preferred candidates for the posts of Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives, respectively.
Discreet searches by The Guardian revealed that the North is plotting to ambush the inauguration of the 10th plenary to ensure the emergence of a ‘strong player’ as first among equals in the Senate.
This is just as some Senators-elect expressed their belief that the election of the next Senate President would be predicated on either, “an anticipated dollar bazaar to influence voting or power of bloc voting interests.”
Also, a third-term Senator from one of the Northwest states disclosed that northern Senators were working across party lines to ensure a revenge against Tinubu for stoking the confusion that attended the inauguration of Eighth Senate.
He explained that the activities of Tinubu in the lead up to the inauguration of the Eighth NASS were being reviewed by influential political leaders from the zone, stressing that it has been discovered that the President-elect wanted to be the power behind the throne in 2015.
However, APC national chairman, Adamu, had told newsmen that the party’s NWC did not want to zone the posts of principal officers without hearing from the President-elect.
Speaking after an extended NWC meeting, in which only about six members were absent, Adamu explained that the meeting afforded the committee the opportunity to unite more than ever before to offer robust leadership.
He maintained that although the NWC did not deliberate on the issue of zoning of floor functionaries of NASS, “we have to carry along the president-elect, in the person of Ahmed Bola Tinubu”.
But, shortly after Tinubu emerged as APC presidential standard bearer and failed to pick any of the outgoing governors from the Northwest states as his running mate, some chieftains from the zone began to grumble, complaining that being the zone with the highest number of voters, their zone ought to be considered.
Spokesperson of APC, Felix Morka is quoted to have said that the Party would do whatever is necessary and constitutional to ensure that the next administration delivers good governance to the people of Nigeria.
