All Eyes on Tinubu, National Assembly 

With the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu, all eyes are on him and the National Assembly over the 10th Senate’s leadership tussle, Sunday Aborisade reports

The controversy that surrounded the choice of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the preferred candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 10th Senate Presidency has failed to subside and the development is generating serious tension among the senators-elect.

Apart from Akpabio from the South-south geopolitical zone, others who are also contesting the 10th Senate Presidency are: Senators Abdulaziz Yari (North-west), Orji Uzor Kalu (South-east) and Osita Izunaso (South-east).

Those who are bidding for the position of the Deputy Senate President are the APC-anointed candidate,  Senator Barau Jibrin (North-west) and Senator Sani Musa (North-central).

However, THISDAY’s investigations revealed that the camps of Yari, Kalu and Izunaso are planning an alliance that would produce a joint ticket.

Both Izunaso and Kalu had commenced separate meetings with Yari on the possibility of working together.

It was also learnt that Izunaso and Kalu had agreed separately with Yari to contest the deputy Senate Presidency if Yari insists on running.

Kalu confirmed his meeting and proposed alliance with Yari in an interview with journalists last Tuesday.

The former governor of Abia State explained that Yari and himself were enjoying the support of their colleagues and other sponsors within and outside the Senate Chamber to make their ambition a reality.

He said, “I cannot step down for anybody. I’m contesting the Senate Presidency but we are talking with Senators-elect Abdulaziz Yari on the possibility of a joint ticket and talks have reached an advanced stage on the issue.

“Our group and his group are talking and we are in intimate partnership and talks is ongoing. No zone can single-handedly produce a Senate President just as no single zone can single-handedly produce the President of Nigeria.

“We have a united partnership with Senator-elect Yari that will work for Nigeria. In the coming days and week, those partnership will be unveiled. We have not decided on who will be Senate President and who will be deputy.

“I cannot deny it – Yari is a friend of mine and I’m his friend and we have decided to talk. We have been speaking for the past four weeks and the result will be unveiled by our sponsors, he has his sponsors and I have my sponsors. 

“The sponsors will come together to decide what direction this partnership will be. I’ll be very happy to reveal what the sponsors will say. 

“The two of us are thinking of the integrity of the senate and support of President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima who were our colleagues. 

“If you are thinking that what happened during (former Senate President, Bukola) Saraki’s time, it will never happen again.

“We won’t disappoint Nigerians. We are capable of representing our people – Yari-Kalu – Kalu-Yari – we won’t disappoint Nigerians. We will give Nigerians what they require and the Nigerian people won’t be disappointed,” he explained.

A member of the campaign team of Izunaso, who spoke off the record last Wednesday, also said the alliance between Yari and  his principal would be perfected at a meeting in Abuja.

Senators, mostly from the South -west were said to have called for a meeting on Friday where they would also review their position and chart a new course on the leadership of the Senate.

The Director General of the Akpabio/Barau Stability Group, Senator Ali Ndume, has however dismissed reports that their camp had been thrown into tension over the alliance Yari was about to form separately with Kalu and Izunaso.

He said: “All the critical stakeholders within the APC and senators-elect are fully in support of the Akpabio and Barau joint ticket for the position of Senate President and Deputy Senate President.

“We have consulted all the leaders of the party and they had all given us their blessings. Most of the senators-elect, more than 70 of them that we had engaged one-on-one, had also pledged their support and votes for us.

“Those who are spreading rumours that there is panic in our camp are instead under intense tension because they know the reality on ground,” Ndume argued.

Ndume also dismissed claims by some groups who called for the withdrawal of Akpabio from the race because of the roles he allegedly played in the Niger Delta Ministry where he served as minister.

The Chairman of the Coalition of Concerned Niger Delta Stakeholders, Odiedini Maachree, had told journalists in Abuja last Wednesday that his group would not support Akpabio because of the alleged roles he played in the NDDC.

He said: “In the wake of subsidy removal and the anticipated hardship it may bring to Nigerians, we need a robust senate leadership to make laws and approvals that will cushion the effect of the interim hardship of the subsidy removal. 

“We frown and dissociate ourselves from any anointed candidate by any political party; we therefore support independent legislature without interference. 

“We the coalition of concerned Niger Delta stakeholders hereby state categorically that we did not endorse any senator in South-south region of Nigeria for senate presidency. 

“Rather we are of the opinion that the senate should be a level playing ground where leadership election will be conducted fairly and anyone with the majority vote wins,” he  reportedly explained. 

He said the group would back Yari.

But in a counter argument, Ndume claimed that the group were sponsored to misinform Nigerians about the roles of Akpabio in the ministry when he served as minister.

He dismissed the claims of the aggrived aspirants and their loyalists.

Ndume said: “It is not surprising that whenever a politically exposed person is contesting elections, some people would be sponsored to raise issues against him or her.

“Don’t forget that President Bola Tinubu was also severally accused when he was campaigning to be president.

“We are not actually bothered about what the sponsored groups are saying about Akpabio; the anti-graft agencies know what to do; why are they teaching them what to do?

“They are alleging  that some corrupt activities took place under his watch at the NDDC but they did not said he misappropriated funds as governor or as minister.

“Akpabio was not the accounting officer of the NDDC; he was only heading the supervising ministry.

“They also accused him of not constituting the board of the NDDC but that also, was not his job. The president of the country is saddled with such responsibility,” he added

Meanwhile, Izunaso has also claimed that it was his turn too to become the President of the Senate.

Izunaso said in Abuja last week that for justice, fairness and equity, Tinubu and the leadership of the ruling APC should consider service and sacrifice to the party in deciding who to support for the position of senate president.

The Senator added that he was more qualified and suitable for the position than all the other contenders in terms of competence, experience, education, knowledge , integrity, loyalty and commitment to the party.

He argued that the APC should compensate his sacrifice, dedication and loyalty to the party by supporting him for the position.

 Izunaso explained that he devoted his time, energy and all in him together with the likes of elder statesman, Chief Bisi Akande and the current Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fahola to build the party from the scratch and served as the National Organising Secretary for five years without any blemish.

He maintainied that it would be grossly unfair and unjust for the leadership of the party to deny him the senate presidency when he said he was the best among the contestants.

Beyond building and sacrificing for the party,  Izunaso disclosed further that he went through hell during the campaign for the presidential election when he  alleged that some key figures in his local government and senatorial district were cruelly slaughtered just because they were supporting and urging people to vote for Tinubu.

Meaanwhile, the Senator-elect who would represent the Nasarawa West, Aliyu Wadada,  has said his colleagues from the North-central geopolitical zone were still determined to ensure the emergence of Senator Sani Musa as Deputy Senate President.

Wadada was elected on the ticket of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He said the fact that he and some of his colleagues have been following Akpabio, does not mean that the North-central had dumped Musa.

He said since the North-central Caucus of the incoming 10th Senate had resolved to support and ensure the emergence of Musa as Deputy Senate President, there was nothing wrong in supporting the choice of the APC for the position of the Senate President.

Wadada said, “The North-central will not, and cannot be left out with a representative like us. We will always strive to get what belongs to us or what we deserve.

“We already had a press briefing where we clearly stated our position. After the press briefing, when the zoning arrangements had been announced, we also took a stand and our governors supported us.

“The governors met with the aspirants from the North-central met and efforts are really on to ensure that North Central gets what it deserves. 

“As senators elect from the North-central geopolitical zone, our position has not changed. We stand for the Deputy Senate President. 

“If the North-central Caucus stands for the Deputy Senate Presidency, by implication that means that the caucus of the North-central, wants the  Presidency of the Senate to go to the Southern part of Nigeria.

“My being around Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin does not change my position as a senator from the North-central part of Nigeria.

“Akpabio is from the South-south, Barau is from the North-west, while Wadada is from the North-central. So there is no confusion at all.

“My being around Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin does not mean that the North Central Caucus had conceded to the APC joint ticket. 

“The North-central geopolitical zone that has been a stabilising factor in Nigeria’s politics, would not want to rock the boat.”

He said the fact that the North-central Caucus recently said it won’t mind having the position of Speaker zoned to its geopolitical zone does not mean, the senators-elect had abandoned Musa.

He said, “What we have said lately is that, if for any reason, the position of the Deputy Senate President that we have always canvassed for would not be conceded to us as North Central, then, we should be given the Speakership position. 

“This is because the North-central cannot go empty handed. It is not fair, It is not just, it is not rational. There is nothing right about it. 

“A situation where a single geopolitical zone to have two presiding officers positions when the North-central remain empty, is not fair,” he added.

With these divergent interests, Tinubu and the incoming federal lawmakers will have a tough time in the coming days.