The choice of principal officers of Nigeria’s 10th National Assembly expected to be inaugurated in June is threatening to tear the country’ ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) apart.
Nigerians say that the development is anti-democracy and must not be allowed to materialise.
They also fear that if not handled carefully the issue can degenerate further and break the APC, while derailing the incoming administration’s plans to begin on a sound footing.
The APC leadership swiftly last week moved to anoint some individuals for the National Assembly principal officers’ positions. In the endorsement, the party settled for former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio as president of the Senate, and Senator Barau Jubrin, Kano North Senatorial District (North West) as deputy Senate president.
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The party also named Tajudeen Abbass, from Kaduna State (North West) as Speaker of the House and Benjamin Kalu from Abia State (South East) as deputy Speaker.
The party leaders said the decision was to safeguard a repeat of the 2015 arrangement where, the process was hijacked by some other members and those endorsed by the party could not emerge as presiding officers of the National Assembly.
Many aspirants for the principal officers positions, have protested in the party’s national secretariat in recent days, they asked the party’s leadership to be prepared for a repeat of what happened in 2015 episode.
The party had in 2015 endorsed Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila for the position of the Senate president and Speaker of House of Representatives respectively but the preferred candidates lost to Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara who aligned with members of the opposition to clinch the positions
Yusuf Gagdi, one of the frontline aspirants, told the APC leadership not to expect them to be loyal to the party if the current zoning arrangement is allowed to stand.
Addressing the national chairman of the party, Gagdi insisted that the proposed arrangement by the NWC was wrong because the National Assembly is an independent body that cannot be turned into the presidency’s federal executive council (FEC) where people are picked at will.
He said: “When we elect our leaders, all of you will not be there, it is we and our conscience and the covenant of the people of Nigeria that will be in the hallowed chamber. So, it is better, it is not late, let the wrongs be righted.
“Unless this is done, sir, our party should not hope that our loyalty will be guaranteed at the detriment of justice, peace and fairness. We will respect justice, unity and equity in the chamber, but only if your instruction is in line with the principle of this party. Sir, do not hope that we have come here to succumb to any instruction and directive given to us.”
Many party leaders and returning NASS members who are also aspirants in the race have publicly kicked against the governing party’s decision to select some individuals as anointed for the positions in both chamber, they threatened not to cooperate with the arrangement.
In recent days, the crisis over its zoning arrangement has become confrontational, with frontline speakership aspirants drawing the battle line against the party. Last week, the House of Representatives members known as the G7 group stormed the party’s national secretariat, Abuja, protesting over the arrangement.
Similarly, Governor of Ondo State and chairman of South West Governors’ Forum, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, also faulted the zoning arrangement of the APC, describing it as a skewed arrangement that reinforces injustice and enhances inequity.
Akeredolu, in a statement personally issued in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Wednesday, noted that the intentions and motives of the zoning formula represent early signs of steps aimed at attempts to cabin the hard-earned Presidency for Bola Ahmed Tinubu by a few individuals with eyes on Aso Rock power buttons.
However, Akeredoulu’s position was different from that of Kano State Governor, Umar Ganduje who said last week that Akpabio has been assured of becoming the next president of the Senate, abd that the decision was already a done deal.
He said, “The Senate president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will come from the South-south and it is no other person than the former governor of Akwa Ibom.
“The uncommon governor, the uncommon minister who is going to be the uncommon president of the senate. So we have resolved that.
“I am giving you assurance, we are waiting for the D-Day that he will be the senate president of Nigeria.”
But many senators have shown their disapproval for the preferred choices arrangement, they said it was imperative that the President-elect should remain neutral in the elections of principal officers in the National Assembly. In recent days, some senators-elect in the APC have vowed not to support the party’s anointed candidates, Akpabio and Jubril Barau for senate president and deputy respectively.
Some of the aggrieved senators are said to be supporting, Orji Kalu from Abia North Senatorial district, or Osita Izunaso, from Imo West. They said it was imperative that the South East get the Senate president position for the sake of equity and fairness since they had been denied the presidency.
Amid the growing opposition to the consensus arrangement, there are reports that the President-elect Bola Tinubu last week met with lawmakers-elect on the platform of opposition political parties in a bid to rally support for the party’s anointed candidate, especially in the House of Representatives where the ruling party do not have a clear majority membership.
Although there have been different interpretations of the current situation by analysts and political experts, there is the general conclusion that the APC would need to be extra careful and need to widen its consultation beyond where it is.
They noted that many of the major stakeholders must be reached out to and reasonable negotiation must be done.
“The current struggle for power among the Senators over leadership of the Red Chamber is much expected considering the fact that the institution plays critical role in any democratic government and the intrigues that made APC to win the presidential election.
“At no period of democratic transition in Nigeria since inception of this fourth Republic, that the race for the Senate President was never seriously contentious because the executive would always want to install its choice for cordial relationship,” Kunle Okunade, political analyst, said.
Okunade also added that it is important for the South East to be carried along in view of the current agitations for inclusive governance by some sections of the country.
“The South East must be duly carried along considering the suspicion going on among the major tribes in Nigeria. All the geopolitical zones need to be carried along in the power structure of Nigeria so as to reduce the level of suspicion among the major tribes. A repeat of 2015 may not be too well for the Tinubu presidency,” he added.
Similarly, Ayo Olutoye, a politician and public affairs analyst, said he would not like rubber stamp NASS in the next administration just like we had now, stressing that the poor performance of the current Muhammadu Buhari administration could be attributed to inability of the current NASS to perform its oversight role effectively.
“For me, the current power play is normal, it is part of party politics, where you have to consult and lobby to win position, especially in the National Assembly, but where I am not happy is if the process is hijacked just like we have seen now.
“You can see the arrangement in the current NASS, where members cannot even speak for the masses, every thing the leadership wants to do is approved. Rubber stamp NASS aided Buhari’s failure.
“The party has to allow democracy to prevail, allow members to elect their leaders, that is what Saraki and Co fought for then in 2015, I wonder why APC is stil afraid even with having the majority in the Senate,” he said.
An investigation by BD Sunday showed that the NWC is divided over the micro-zoning of the positions as the zoning template was not unanimously adopted by all members of the NWC.
However, many of the legislators are not against Tinubu’s choice of geopolitical zones, but against the micro-zoning of the leadership positions.
According to a senator from the North-West, who pleaded anonymity, there was nothing wrong with the zoning as the ideal thing is an open contest for the positions by anyone from the zones to which a particular office has been allocated.
“We did not want the positions to be given to individuals, but contested. This was why we also advised for further consultations, but the NWC ignored it,” the angry NWC member lamented.
Considering the small margin in the number with which the APC leads in the incoming 10th National Assembly, the North-West senator, thinks that it is opening room for fierce contests as other aggrieved contestants, particularly in the House of Representatives, could team up to produce leaders other than the ones adopted by the NWC.
In line with that, Chijioke Umelahi, a former Abia lawmaker and an Abuja-based lawyer, thinks that the opposition parties may likely work against the APC zoning, especially in the House of Representatives where it will be difficult to adopt leaders without the opposition.
“If you go by the numbers, I see opposition in the House of Representatives teaming up against Tajudeen Abbas, the adopted candidate, for the Speaker position,” Umelahi said.
He insisted that it could happen because most of the legislators did not approve the handpicking arrangement.
But Onyewuchi Akagbule, a senior lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, said the arrangement would be adjusted by the ruling party to avoid cracks, knowing the feelings of Nigerians that they did not win the election.
“I see compromise at the end of the day. Already, various zones are making fresh demands on the party hierarchy. North-West, which claimed to be the reason APC won the presidential election, is insisting on the senate president slot, the North-Central and North-East are also asking for the same position, while the South-East, where it should ordinarily go to, has lost hope with the handpicking arrangement,” he said.
The senior lecturer said the politicians are toeing the same road that has set the country backwards in the last eight years.
The politicians want peace and harmony in the National Assembly, but that peace will not favour the masses who want a vibrant assembly.
Peace means compromises at the expense of the masses’ welfare and country’s development. The National Assembly needs tough legislators that will truly check the excesses of the executive. But the handpicking will ensure we have puppets at the chambers. It is bad of the very selfish politicians,” he said.
Looking at the arrangement from the comfort of his home in Brussels, Belgium, Samuel Onikoyi, a Nigerian academia, regretted that the country is about going the same way that did not profit it in the past eight years all because of the selfishness of the legislators.
“You can see where we are today because the National Assembly worked in harmony with the executive and was a mere puppet to the president. That does not happen in modern democracy because the legislators are usually elected among other things, to checkmate the executive.
But the president has had his way for eight years, all because of a weak National Assembly. It should not repeat, let the legislators save the country for once,” Onikoyi said.
The researcher thinks that an executive that is in logahead with the legislature will benefit the country more than a smooth working relationship built on compromise between both.
Meanwhile, pundits are predicting that the APC zoning template will not stand the test of time because of the intention.
“Why are you keen on the choice of National Assembly leadership if you are confident in your capacity to rule, why turn legislators to your puppets when you assume the all-knowing status. We should consider the interest of the already battered country because it could worsen and there will be no country to manipulate again,” an aggrieved pundit warned.
