The arrival of the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the country last Monday has rekindled the race for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
Also, the quest for a new Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives and a new President of the Senate has engaged Tinubu’s attention since his return.
Most of those aspiring for both positions have been trying to win the support of the President-elect.
At least four senators are in the front race to succeed the incumbent Senate President as from June when the 10th National Assembly will be inaugurated.
They are Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia), Abdul Aziz Abubakar Yari (Zamfara) and Barau Jibrin (Kano).
The contenders have been moving round the country to campaign and justify their aspiration for the position.
One of the leading aspirants is the current Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu who last week met with the president –elect in his Aso-Rock home in Abuja where they were said to have engaged in a closed door meeting afterwards.
Apart from the leading four aspirants already mentioned earlier , others in the race are Sen Sani Musa (Niger East); Sen Ali Ndume (Borno South), Sen Osita Izunaso (Imo West), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi South) and Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North); the serving Senate president, Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North); former Deputy Senate leader, Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central); Senate.
Of all these aspirants, only Umahi is going to the Senate for the first time.
Meanwhile Tinubu has admonished the APC governors to work with the party to avoid precipitating a leadership crisis in the National Assembly.
Tinubu asked Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Hope Uzodimma (Imo) and others to work with the party leadership and lawmakers on the election of principal officers of the 10TH National Assembly.
Tinubu made this admonition last Thursday during a meeting with some members of the Progressives Governors Forum who visited him at the Defence House in Abuja, according to a statement by his media aide, Tunde Rahman.
It has been gathered that the President- elect agreed with the suggestion of the governors that consensus candidates should not be picked, rather the positions should be zoned.
It was gathered that the meeting was part of Tinubu’s consultations with the APC stakeholders for the planned zoning of the positions.
He had earlier met with the party’s National Working Committee members and some aspirants.
The governors were led to the meeting by the Chairman of the PGF who also doubles as the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu.
The Permutations
A lot of permutations are ongoing concerning the zoning of leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly. It is believed that since the President-elect hails from the South-West and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, is from the North-East, the APC’s ceding of the position of President of the Senate will give the South-East geopolitical zone a sense of belonging in the coming Tinubu administration.
Kalu, who was actually the first among the contenders to publicly declare his intention to contest for Senate presidency of the 10th Assembly, stressed that it is his turn to occupy the exalted office, since he is a ranking APC member of the Senate as well as the highest APC officer from the South-East.
He is also banking on his Christian background and had unequivocally rejected any zoning arrangement that will make a Muslim to emerge as Senate President in the coming Assembly, arguing that since Nigeria is a secular state, it would not be right for persons of the same religious faith to occupy the first three highest political offices in the country.
Tinubu and Shettima, the President-elect and Vice President-elect respectively, are Muslims. Kalu has argued that he as a Christian should be the Number Three man in the country.
Political analysts believe that the incumbent senate president, Ahmad Lawan, who is said to be interested in the retaining the seat but has not made any public statement to confirming his interest, will face an uphill task given the fact that the North-East, where he hails from has already produced the vice president in the person of Shettima.
It is also believed that Lawan’s Muslim background and his manner of handling of affairs of the 9th Senate, which made many to see the Red Chamber as a “rubber stamp” will equally work against his bid.
For Akpabio and Barau, their respective bids are hinged on the need for power balancing among the geopolitical zones. Akpabio, who hails from the South-South, is a former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, while Barau is from Kano in the North-West. So they are equally hopeful that the APC leadership will consider their respective zones in deciding where the pendulum will swing to. But Akpabio is also having an edge, being a Christian.
Akpabio’s supporters are also talking of the way and manner he stepped down for Tinubu at the APC Presidential Primary, wishing that Tinubu will also pay him back by endorsing his ambition to lead the senate.
Musa, who is from Niger State, has adopted a cautious approach to his bid. Though eminently qualified going by the Senate rules and other considerations, Musa who represents Niger East (North Central) has realised that his Muslim background may pose an obstacle to his ambition. He has therefore said that he will not allow his political ambition to cloud his sense of patriotism and nationalism.
He has opted to respect the heterogeneous structure of Nigeria, and has said that he will not allow his Senate presidency ambition to contribute to the already tense political atmosphere in the country, following the emergence of two Muslims as President-elect and Vice President-elect.
Musa told journalists recently in Abuja that although his primary desire was to contest for the Senate presidency, he was willing and ready to sacrifice his number one choice and go for the Office of Deputy President of the Senate, only on religious consideration, so that a Christian could be elected as the next President of the Senate.
He said, “For the exigencies of our time, looking at the volatile situation of what has generated the Muslim-Muslim ticket in this country, I am one person that believes in the secularity of one Nigeria. I am one person that believes that, for every reason, there should be give and take in this country.
“We have lived with both Christians and Muslims. Some of us still have relatives that are still Christians and Muslims. We have lived in a society where there’s intermarriage; we have lived for so long. Our forefathers envisaged a country where we would all live together. “I will not have any problem seeing a qualified, competent personality like me in the Senate, who has also presented himself for the office of the Senate President and asked me please to drop my ambition for him; I will do it. “There is a position of Deputy Senate President, which also is a presiding officer in the National Assembly. I will be willing to do it if it’s going to be in the best interest of Nigerians and if it’s going to be in the best interest of the zone I am going to represent. There’s no commitment or sacrifice too much to make to keep the unity this country deserves.”
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.
