Bukola Saraki, and George Akume
Saraki, Akume in battle royale Atiku may get BoT
chairmanship
Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Arising from a meeting in Abuja Thursday night, the national
leaders and national caucus of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) have officially zoned the office of the Senate President in
the 8th Senate to the North central geo-political zone, while the
Speaker of the House of Representatives was zoned to the
North-east geo-political zone.
A source at the APC meeting which lasted till the wee-hours of
Friday told THISDAY that the party leaders accepted in
principle a prototype office sharing formula that would
accommodate all vested interests within the party.
The source said: “After deft negotiations, the leaders agreed to
cede the position of the Senate President to the North-central
and that of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the
North-east. They also endorsed a zoning arrangement that
would see the South-west producing the Deputy Senate
President and South-south, Deputy Speaker.”
With the agreement yesterday, the current minority leader in
the Senate, George Akume from Benue State and Senator
Bukola Saraki from Kwara State are expected to engage each
other in a fierce contest for the Senate Presidency.
It was learnt that the position of the Speaker was earlier
allotted to the South-west but had to be moved to North-east
following a strong lobby by leaders from the zone who argued
that such arrangement was necessary to compensate them for
the massive support for the party during the election.
Apart from the sharing arrangement for the principal positions,
the APC meeting which had personalities like the former Lagos
Governor, Bola Tinubu and some governors in attendance also
considered the issue of ministerial appointments.
In line with THISDAY exclusive story yesterday, the APC
leaders also zoned the office of the Chairman of its Board of
Trustees (BoT) to Adamawa State, where the former Vice
President Atiku Abubakar is set to clinch the position that was
hitherto held by the former governor of Osun State and former
national chairman of the party, Bisi Akande.
The source hinted further that the party zoned the office of the
Majority Leader of the Senate to the South-west.
However, South-east did not get any position in the current
allocation but according to a top notch APC member, the zone
will be compensated by other appointments to ensure some
balance and equity. In all the eight senatorial seats in the zone,
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won all the seats. This
has made it impossible for the zone to aspire for any principal
office in the senate.
The same thing happened in the zone for the House of
Representatives. No single member of the House of
Representatives from the zone is from the APC. PDP won all
the National Assembly seats in both arms of the National
Assembly. In fact, in the Presidential Election, the APC did not
score up to 15 percent in any of the states in the southeast.
Another source at the Abuja meeting said the APC chieftains
could not however conclude deliberations on the ministerial
appointments as it was decided that stakeholders in the states
and zonal levels should go back to the areas to hold
consultations on the matter.
It was resolved that the state chapters of the party would each
nominate three persons for ministerial consideration and are to
submit same to the party through the Vice Chairmen and
Deputy National Chairmen on or before Tuesday next week.
The source added that another meeting of the party leadership
is scheduled to hold on Tuesday where they hope to harmonize
issues and finalize discussions on the recommendations to be
presented to the National Executive Committees (NEC) of the
party.
“While the President- elect, General Muhammadu Buhari had
asked the party to discuss the issue of ministerial
appointments and to advise him as appropriate, he has
insisted on retaining the transition committee list. Buhari had
in choosing members of the transition committee made sure
that each of them is tested expert in the various sectors where
they will serve. He was said to be very conscious of their level
of integrity and honesty,” added the source.
A top member of the APC who spoke to THISDAY last night on
condition of anonymity said: “All the positions said to have
been shared are yet to be firmed. Nothing can be confirmed
until the final meeting next week.” He advised that all reports
about sharing of positions should be disregarded until next
week when a final decision would be taken.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/
apc-zones-senate-presidency-to-ncentral-speaker-to-neast/
207122/

correct you should not reap where you sowed
not like some chest wankers in here!

Equitable distribution. APA all the way