The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently in crisis due to the zoning and consensus on the 10th National Assembly leadership.
Perhaps, it was to forestall the brewing crisis that caused the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, to make a U-Turn last Thursday when he said the party would go back to the drawing board with a view to reviewing the zoning formula already adopted for the 10th National Assembly leadership.
Adamu bowed to pressure that had arisen from different aspirants who threatened to ensure a repeat of what happened in 2015 when Senator Bukola Saraki and Rt. Hon. Dogara mobilised members of the opposition, led by the PDP, to get elected as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
Adamu gave aspirants for the senate presidency, who stormed the secretariat on Thursday in protest, the assurance that a review would be carried out because the zoning list was flawed and it was drafted without adequate consultation.
The National Working Committee, NWC, had last Monday zoned the position of Senate President of the incoming Senate to the South-South geopolitical zone and the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North-West.
The party also zoned the positions of Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North-West and South-East, respectively.
Specifically, the party said it adopted the zoning template and candidates of its President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and settled for Senators Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jubrin for Senate President and Deputy Senate President, respectively, as well as adopting Hon. Abass Tajudeen and Ben Kalu for Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Although the zoning arrangement was welcomed by some stakeholders in the party, many others, especially those aspiring for the leadership positions, rejected and vowed to work against it.
The aspirants for the position of Senate President, who stormed the party’s Secretariat and met with the National Working Committee last Thursday include former Zamfara State Governor and Senator-elect, Abdulaziz Yari; Senator Sani Musa; Senator and former Governor of Abia State and Senate Chief Whip , Orji Uzor-Kalu, as well as Senator Sadiq Umar.
These senators threatened to disobey the party’s directive on the current zoning arrangement, if it is not reviewed. They submitted a letter and asked the NWC to correct the mistakes on the zoning formula or face the consequences.
Responding, Adamu admitted that the zoning policy was done without adequate consultation. He appealed to the lawmakers to wait for the final outcome of another meeting when the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, returns to the country, saying this time around, consultation would be enlarged.
Adamu said, “As chairman of the APC, I take responsibility for what has gone on air. I take absolute responsibility for that. Yes, there was no sufficient or adequate consultation with you who are contesting and it is simple principle of democracy that you get views and opinions. But the circumstances that we found ourselves in after the elections frustrated our desire.
“We will go back to the drawing board. We owe our party that duty to take a look whether what was done cannot be changed: what was done needs some changes or reviews.
“Hold your fire until the last word is heard from us. We are the custodians of the party as NWC, but we are not acting alone. The voice of the president-elect is an essential voice. We must accommodate him, the best we can. I will not compromise on that.
“He is right now outside the country and by the grace of God, when he comes back we will go back to the drawing board and put our hearts together again and see what we will get.
“I cannot preempt that. I will wait until we hold that meeting with the President-elect, the same team that we had the same meeting with. If we need to enlarge the committee we will do so we will better-informed through contributions that will be made,” he said.
He further said that the agitation of the North-Central geopolitical zone for reward having voted massively for the party was genuine and would be looked into.
“On the issue of the North-Central, I remain tongue-tied talking about the geopolitical zone. Your argument is extremely plausible. I assure you, we will take a look at it along what has been given to the public.”
Last Wednesday, speakership aspirants referred to as the G7 took their grievances on the party’s position to the NWC with a threat that the party should be prepared for a repeat of what happened in 2015 when those that were endorsed for the NASS leadership positions could not emerge as presiding officers.
It is believed that many members of the NWC are not happy with the micro-zoning of the positions. The zoning template, THEWILL gathered, was not unanimously adopted by all the members of the NWC. While many did not exactly oppose Tinubu’s choice of geopolitical zones, they were said to have kicked against the micro-zoning of the leadership positions.
“It was indeed the thinking of some of us that anyone from the zones, to which a particular office has been allocated, can contest. We did not want a situation where positions would be given to individuals. This was why we also advised that there should be further consultations,” said an aggrieved member.
He expressed concern that other aggressive contestants, particularly in the House of Representatives could team up to produce a formidable opposition to the adopted candidate, Tajudeen Abbas.
North West/North Central Positions
Some APC stakeholders in the North-West are not happy with the speakership of the House of Reps and deputy senate presidency slots allotted to them. According to them, the North-West gave Tinubu the highest number of votes and they felt that any of the two senators-elect from the zone – the current chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Jibrin, representing Kano-North district, and former governor Abdulaziz Yari, vying for the Senate President’s seat should be allowed to be senate president.
Insisting on producing the Senate President, the North-West APC stakeholders said: “Tinubu, candidate of the APC in the 2023 presidential election, is now the president-elect, courtesy of the magnanimity and loyalty of the North-West, which gave him the highest votes in the election, followed by the South-West. Without the North-West, therefore, there would not be a Tinubu presidency.
“Denying the North-West the senate presidency will be akin to testing the loyalty of the region and its people, and ultimately, it will come with dire political consequences.”
In like manner, Senators- elect from the North-Central kicked against the APC zoning template, saying it would not stand the test of time.
The Senators-elect from different political parties in the zone, who rejected the zoning arrangements for the 10th National Assembly leadership, had written a letter of protest to the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC, calling on the party to, as a matter of urgency, jettison the arrangements they described as unacceptable.
According to them, only the North-Central did not produce any presiding officer.
The letter by the lawmakers-elect entitled, “Resolution of the North Central Caucus of the 10th Senate on NASS Leadership Zoning, was signed by 18 Senators-elect.
The letter read in part: “We the North-Central Senators-elect Caucus met on Monday, May 8, 2023, and resolved as follows:
“That the North-Central as a geopolitical zone in Nigeria has paid its dues in the political stability of the country and shall continue to do so, but where we see the open denial of our rights and privileges, we will have no option than to voice out in the interest of the zone and its people we represent.
“It is pertinent to know that we are fully committed to supporting the incoming administration of the President-elect, Asiwaju Tinubu for a better Nigeria.
This can only happen if fairness, equity and justice are ensured. It is on record that the North-Central gave the APC 41 per cent of her votes to victory, hence we equally deserve it as others.
“Our caucus reviewed the proposed zoning structure released, and we are not pleased and comfortable with the allocation of the positions of the Deputy Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 10th National Assembly to a particular geopolitical zone of the country (North-West), we hereby reject it.
“The convention has always been that the six geopolitical zones of the country will have one each of the six positions.
“Now that the South-West and North-East have produced the President-elect and Vice President-elect, respectively, it is only fair and natural that the positions of the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives should be shared among the other four geopolitical zones, that is the North-Central, South-South, South-East and North-West.
“Sequel to the above, we, as a caucus, are calling on the APC to immediately retract its earlier decision which schemes us out of the power-sharing formula of the country and cede the position of the Deputy Senate President to the North-Central Zone so as to ensure fairness, equity and justice for a smooth 10th Senate.”
Fear of the opposition parties
The opposition party members are waiting in the wings and monitoring with interest the development in the APC, as regards the consensus arrangement on the position of Senate President, Deputy Senate President, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.
In the Senate, the APC has a majority of 59 senators out of 109, leaving all the opposition parties with 50 members. However, if the aggrieved APC members put their number together with 50 opposition senators , the number may be enough to snatch the senate president ticket from the nominee of the APC.
So the best thing for APC is to unite and agree on a candidate for the position of Senate President to stop the opposition from truncating their plan.
The situation in the House of Representatives is worse for the ruling party as the opposition members-elect are in the majority.
They are already forming an alliance, with a view to elect one of their fold as the Speaker of the 10th House of Reps.
The coming days will be interesting as both the APC and the opposition are trying to scheme for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
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.
