There is uneasy calm in the Senate as the lawmakers get ready to select a new Minority Leader. The jostle for the position seems to be generating tension among opposition senators, following moves by some vested interests to impose a preferred candidate on the Red Chamber.
According to the laws and rules of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, four principal positions are to be occupied by elected Senators on the platforms of the ruling All Progressives Congress and minority political parties aside from the two leadership positions.
The positions for the minorities in the Senate are Senate Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and the Deputy Whip. PDP with majority senators, (36) among the opposition is supposed to fill two of the available four spots.
It is believed that on resumption of plenary on July 4, the Senate President is expected to read the letter from the parties announcing their nominations for the minority leadership positions.
THEWILL gathered that the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate in the last general election, Atiku Abubakar had already declared support for the former Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, who is currently representing Sokoto South in the senate for the minority leadership seat.
However, the G-5 Governors, who opposed Atiku’s candidacy in the last presidential election, are about to rekindle the conflict by pushing for Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe (Cross River North) for the same position.
THEWILL recalls that Atiku and the G-5 Governors, comprising Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, former governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers); Samuel Ortom of Benue State; Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State had been at loggerheads with the PDP leadership since Atiku emerged as the party’s presidential candidate in the last general election and dumped Wike by picking former Governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa as the vice presidential candidate.
Although Governor Makinde is still in office for his second and final term, the other members of the G-5 Governors, also known as the Integrity Group, concluded their tenures on May 29, 2023.
The politicking around the sharing of the minority leadership positions started on June 24, 2023 when eight minority Senators issued a press release saying the minority political parties were aware of an attempt by forces within and outside the Senate to divide them and foist a pliant and compromised leadership on them.
The Senators namely, Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero; Senator Henry Seriake Dickson; Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; Senator Abdul Ningi; Senator Patrick Abba Moro; Senator Ezenwa Francis Onyewuchi; Senator Sumaila Kawu; and Senator Ifeanyi Ubah said they had pledged to work constructively with the new leadership of the Senate and the Executive branch to deliver good governance to the Nigerian people, but advise and caution that they should not aid any group to divide and destabilise the minority parties and the Senate.
“Senators of the minority parties will meet when the Senate reconvenes and, in consultation with our respective political parties, select their leaders without undue interference from anti-democratic forces within or outside the Senate.
“For the avoidance of doubt, no senator has yet been endorsed or selected for any minority position as this will await due process as agreed by all minority parties in their last meeting.
“Any attempt to foist a one party dictatorship will be resisted and it will fail. We call on all members of the minority political parties to work together in unity to defend the democratic institution of the Senate and Nigeria,” the senators said in the release.
It was gathered that these senators raised the alarm because of Wike’s closeness to President Bola Tinubu and the senate leadership, as well as the fear that he may use his connection with both Tinubu and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio to foist a minority senate leader on them.
Sources claim that Wike’s recent visit to Akpabio has fueled the suspicion that he is courting the support of the senate leadership and the APC to favour his choice candidate for the senate minority leadership position.
As the intrigue reached fever pitch, reports also had it that some senators elected on the platforms of opposition political parties may have moved against the plot to foist Tambuwal on them as Minority leader.
Sources said that a PDP senator from Rivers State and another senator from the North, as well as a ranking senator from the South-West, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said these senators vowed to resist attempts to impose Tambuwual on them.
The senators insisted, the sources claimed, that Tambuwal had a reputation for throwing his political allies under the bus at critical moments to promote his selfish interest and he lacked the capacity to provide the needed leadership to them as minority leader.
Some of the minority senators, who were said to have spoken after a meeting on Wednesday, said that there was an indication that with what Tambuwal did to the PDP, he would use his position as minority leader, if elected, to negotiate with and apologise to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who he betrayed after making him Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Senators stated that they knew that Tambuwal, whose regime has come under scrutiny in Sokoto State, is on a mission to use the minority leader position to negotiate for self preservation and use the platform to run for Presidential election in 2027.
The senators are insisting that Tambuwal has a record of throwing his political allies under the bus at critical moments to promote his selfish interest and lacks the capacity to provide the much-needed leadership to them.
Also a bloc in the PDP, ‘Concerned PDP League’, (CPDL) has said that it is opposed to any attempt by the party to present Tambuwal, as Senate Minority Leader.
The Chairman of CPDPL, Mr. Daboikiabo Warmate, alleged in a statement on Wednesday that the group was not in support of Tambuwal, based on his actions as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Warmate said that instead of Tambuwal, the position of Minority leader should rather be zoned to a state in the North-Central geo-political zone, precisely Plateau State.
“That his ambition is dead in its imagination, how much more arrival; nevertheless, the past has caught up with him,” he said.
Warmate stated that Tambuwal had, during his leadership as Speaker of the 8th House of Representatives given to him by the PDP, defected to the All Progressives Congress.
“It is with great disappointment and shock to have read in the papers that Tambuwal, the former Governor of Sokoto State and PDP Governors Forum Chairman, wants to be the minority leader of the 10th Senate”, Warmate further said.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
