By Uchechukwu Okoroafor
To those who were declared winners of the various elective positions in the 2023 general election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the elections are over and done with even though there may be petitions at the election petition tribunals challenging their victory.
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This is even as those who believed that they were rigged out, the prominent of which are the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi and presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar among others are in court challenging the declaration of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023 and his emergence as President-elect.
While all eyes are in the courts to confirm who truly won the 2023 presidential election, in the legislative arm of government, the lawmakers are looking forward to the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, and more importantly those to occupy the leadership positions. It is in this regard that the APC has formally zoned the Senate Presidency of the in-coming 10th National Assembly to the South-South, with Godswill Akpabio as the party’s choice.
Felix Morka, the party’s national publicity secretary, announced this recently in Abuja while addressing newsmen after a closed-door meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Morka said the meeting considered reports of consultations and meetings held with the President-elect Bola Tinubu on zoning arrangements for the 10th National Assembly leadership positions.
“The NWC noted with respect the outcome of the meetings held between the President-elect and the leadership of the NWC.
“The NWC called for further and better consultation with necessary stakeholders in order to assure the support of the aspirants to the National Assembly leadership positions and members of the party nationwide,” he said.
He added that the zoning arrangement reported to the party’s NWC was as follows: Senate resident – South-South, Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom). Deputy Senate president – North West- Barau Jubrin (Kano).
Speaker, House of Representatives- North West, Abass Tajudeen (Kaduna) and deputy speaker South-East, Ben Kalu (Abia).
The APC scribe urged the party’s leaders, members and Nigerians generally to continue to work for peace and progress of the country during and beyond the current period of leadership transition.
But in a swift reaction, the current House of Reps Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase, and current Majority Leader, Alhasan Ado Doguwa, rejected the consensus arrangement announced by the party.
Speaking at a press conference, Wase and Doguwa said they would not allow the 10th National Assembly to be “hijacked.” They also vowed to proceed with their separate bids for the speakership position.
Also, in defiance of the APC zoning arrangement, a leading aspirant for Speaker, Aliyu Betara, declared his intention to occupy the exalted seat in the lower legislative chamber.
Betara, who is under pressure to drop his bid for the Speakership, insisted that he remains the most experienced and prepared to lead the House. He declared his bid for the seat shortly after APC revealed its preferred aspirants to occupy the leadership positions of the 10th NASS. The event held at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja was attended by scores of lawmakers and his supporters from across the country.
Furthermore, stakeholders of the party from the North Central, led by Salihu Ibrahim, have faulted the zoning arrangement, noting that the zone has been marginalised. The group called on the party leadership to reverse the decision and zone the speakership seat to the zone. He said: “We are being marginalised as regards the sharing formulas of offices of the 10th National Assembly. The party has not taken the North Central into consideration and it is outrageous.
“We are not happy right from the emergence of the APC. We the North Central have contributed largely to the development of the APC and up till date we are still on it.”
Piqued by the APC’s decision to anoint Abass as the Speaker, the Minority Caucus of the House has vowed to render the decision an exercise in futility.
The caucus, led by Nicholas Mutu, argued that they have the “Greater Majority,” with a combined members-elect tally of 183, as against the APC’s total of 177, to pick from among themselves the next Speaker of the House.
The caucus contended that its position is further buoyed by their dominant numerical strength, which by parliamentary ethos, precedent and the 1999 Constitution, as amended, allows them to contest the presiding officers position.
To achieve their objective, the caucus has put together an 11-man committee, charged with the task of shortlisting, screening and making eventual recommendation of aspirants for the Speakership and Deputy Speaker positions. Afam Victor Ogene is appointed as Secretary of the Committee with the mandate to turn in its report in one-week time.
In a related development, some Senators-elect at the 10th National Assembly induction programme held in Abuja expressed divergent views on the decision of the party to anoint some members for NASS leadership position.
Senate President aspirant, Sani Musa, said his colleagues would decide his fate notwithstanding the decision of APC to settle for Akpabio and Jibrin as its choice of Senate President and Deputy Senate President.
Speaking during the start of the retreat, he noted: “I am a senator and we have 109 senators. Whatever decision any other organ will give is going to be advisory. And once you give us an advisory note, we will look at it, consider it and we will act in the best interest of Nigeria.
“Everywhere around the world where there are true democracies, parties make inputs but decisions are left with those elected. I am not aware of that yet. Until when it is officially put before us, then I will comment.”
Sani Musa is wrong. There is no where in the world including the United States where the leadership of the party that has the majority of elected parliamentarians are not enforcing the choice of the leadership of the legislature. It is always a red flag when lawmakers are not loyal to the party. It was such indiscipline that destroyed PDP in 2015. What the President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC’s NWC have done is to bring sanity to the contest for the leadership of the 10 National Assembly and point the direction the party is going for justice, fairness and equity.
If some of these lawmakers who used to praise President-elect Bola Tinubu for his political sagacity which motivated them to campaign for him to emerge the president of the country turn around to oppose his preferred candidates for National Assembly leadership it means they are not sincere abi initio. If these dissenting lawmakers have faith in Tinubu, they should also have faith in his preferred candidates. They should also understand that the party is supreme and should therefore respect the choice of the party in the National Assembly leadership tussle.