BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The 10th National Assembly leadership tussle has remained very fierce and decked with uncertainty as the lawmakers-elect in both chambers file out to elect their leaders.
The political climate has been charged with divergent opinions and choices by the lawmakers-elect that have created distrust among them. Even the party’s anointed aspirants are no longer comfortable with the goings on as their popularity seems to be weaning off by the day.
However, President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress have insisted that their decision to anoint Senators Godswill Akpabio and Jibrin Barau for the positions of President and Deputy President of the Senate as well as Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives remain unchanged.
President Tinubu last week, met with the governors, senators-elect and members-elect of the ruling party to reaffirm the party’s stand on the leadership of the 10th assembly.
Though the meeting failed to sell the anointed aspirants with other aspirants, Abdulaziz Yari and his team as well as Ahmed Wase and his team shunning the meeting, the President told the governors and lawmakers-elect present that the party’s choice should be respected during voting on the floor of the assembly.
A group called “The Natives” in furtherance to the actualisation of President Tinubu’s choice has thrown its weight behind Akpabio in his aspiration to become Senate president.
The group’s spokesman, Olalekan Smart Edwards, said President Bola Tinubu’s choice of Akpabio signals partnership adding that the mood of the country requires the Akpabio/Barau leadership for the Senate.
His words, “There is a partner in Tinubu, hence we wish after due consideration of the fundamental issues of national interest, legacies and visionary leadership, it has become imperative, instructive, equitable that a competent, pragmatic and effective leader be supported and elected the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.”
Claiming that the choice is a progressive vision to move Nigeria to unprecedented heights and national growth through legislative excellence, he said, we strongly align and support the candidacy of Akpabio.
“The ultimate goal of every governance process should be the attainment of national security, unity, cohesion and integration.
“So micro zoning in a democracy especially in this part that we find ourselves could also serve as a tool in stimulating a sense of belonging provided quality, excellence is not compromised,” he added.
Investigations revealed that the APC NWC has split over the choice of the leadership tussle.
Member of the NWC who preferred anonymity told The Point that the choice of the party and the President is not the choice of all the NWC members.
Our source said, “We are not all on the same page in this choice of the leadership of the incoming National Assembly. The party has no right to impose leadership on the legislature. They should be allowed to choose their leaders without interference.
What we can do as a party is to lobby the lawmakers-elect to vote for the candidates of our choice without making our choice public.”
The NWC member expressed fears that open declaration of support for some aspirants against others will cause huge problems in the party since all the contestants are party men.
“It’s very dangerous coming in the open to support some aspirants against others while all of them are members of our party. We cannot continue to pretend that all is well. My friend, don’t mind that we are trying to cover up, we are facing some problems because some people believe it’s their turn to do as they like by deciding for the party. If you don’t know, some of us in the NWC are seen already as those whose tenure has ended because these same people are confident President Tinubu will remove us but even at that, I can confidently say that the anointed aspirants may not win at last,” he added.
“June 13 is more worrisome to us as APC than the Presidential election. Yes APC is in power but we must watch it especially when we don’t have the majority that can conveniently give us the leaderships of our choices for those positions in both chambers. Anointing Akpabio and Abbas and making it public is likely to backfire. I’m afraid the opposition may move against us. This is politics and anything goes.”
A political analyst, Chibueze Amaechi, looking at the benefits of the decision by the President and the APC to openly support the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio, for Senate President and Tajudeen Abbas for Speaker, will lead to stabilising the polity and could deepen political participation amongst the people. He said it could also encourage trust, brotherhood and goodwill for the country.
“Look at what happened in the ninth assembly. The immediate past Buhari-led administration over mingled with the National Assembly and ended up using them to plunge us into terrible debts, insecurity, economic woes because whatever he wanted from them he got it even at the detriment of the people. That is not the kind of National Assembly we want from the incoming 10th assembly”
Amaechi encouraged the lawmakers-elect to consider the country’s interest above their personal interest when voting for those that will lead them in the next four years, adding that the leadership that emerges from their election on Tuesday will either encourage development of the country or take it many years back worse than the Buhari’s administration left it.
He maintained that the fulcrum of every country’s democratic development is the legislature and where the lawmakers elect their leaders based on primordial sentiments, the country is doomed for as many years as they will be in power to make laws.
“Look at what happened in the ninth assembly. The immediate past Buhari-led administration over mingled with the National Assembly and ended up using them to plunge us into terrible debts, insecurity, economic woes because whatever he wanted from them he got it even at the detriment of the people. That is not the kind of National Assembly we want from the incoming 10th assembly.
“President Tinubu chose Akpabio for Senate and Abbas for House of Representatives because they have the mind of their own. Those who are angling to be there must prove they have what it takes to say no to some requests from the executive when they are not beneficial to the people.”
In a related development, a body known as The Southern Nigerian Movement And Coalition Of Pro-democracy Organization has rejected any election that will produce a former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, as the next President of the Nigerian Senate.
The group asserted that it would not be fair and just when only one religion will produce the leadership of all arms and level of government in a country while making others to become strangers.
To concretize the support for the choices of Tinubu and the APC, Ogah and Aguocha expressed their satisfaction with the leadership of President Tinubu and the zoning formula of the All Progressives Congress on the leadership of the 10th Assembly.
The members-elect on the platform of the Labour Party had in their different interviews said that they alongside some of their colleagues have “agreed to go towards government and party decision” on the zoning of the leadership of the National Assembly.
Their comments however attracted reactions from the party which said though as newly elected lawmakers on the platform of the Labour Party, the members-elect made the utterances which are clearly within their rights as individuals as enshrined in the laws of the land, however, the party has a view quite different from what the members were quoted to have said.
According to its spokesman, “The party has given clear directives and will not condone any of its members who will not subsume to the supremacy of the party. We therefore demand that the affected lawmakers retrace their steps and tender unreserved apologies to the leadership of the party.”
Former governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party in Rivers State, Precious Ellekima, cautioned against electing Akpabio as the President of the Senate.
He argued that doing such will amount to disregard to the northern politicians who in the interest of equity and fair play zoned the presidency to the south even when some of them qualified to retain the position in the north.
He said Akpabio as Senate President when the President is from the south and the Chief Justice of the Federation is also from the south gives wrong signals that might disrupt the zoning in future.
