Intrigues and horse trading have continued to characterise the jostling for the leadership of the two chambers of the National Assembly, Senate and House of Representatives.
New Telegraph gathered yesterday that senators from the South-West were reconsidering their support for one of the candidates for the Senate presidency, Senator Ahmed Lawan, from Yobe State who currently enjoys the backing of All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu.
Besides, attempts by two of the candidates for the House speakership, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, to forge an alliance in furtherance of their ambitions have run into a hitch. Others in the race for the Senate presidency are Senators Bukola Saraki and George Akuma while Hon. Yakubu Dogara is also eyeing the House speakership.
It was gathered that various camps and caucuses have emerged in both chambers of the National Assembly amid the uncertainty over the party’s decision on which zone gets what. But the party leaders, piqued by the intrigues and the likely implications of any further delay, will meet tomorrow in Abuja to take a final decision on the issue.
A senator confided in New Telegraph that the South-West senators had asked Tinubu to present another candidate for them to support as Lawan lacks the national clout to win the race.
He said: “The issue has really put the party on the edge; this is the first time since the merger that we will be so undecided on anything, not even the issue of national chairman and even that of the presidential candidate of the party caused this much of concern to the party.
“Either way you look at it, care must be taken not to rock the boat but a decision has to be taken; and that is why the leadership of the party will finalise the matter this week, maybe at the level of the national caucus meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
“At our level in the South-West, we cannot go against our leader, Asiwaju (Tinubu), but what we have politely told him is that he should bring up someone else and not Lawan. From all indications, even the North- East governors are not fully supporting the man. “So we are awaiting the response to our submission to Asiwaju for us to move ahead.
But I think what we told him in confidence should be able to guide the leadership to take a decision on the matter.” It was also gathered that the outgoing Governor of Kano State and now a senator-elect, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, had admonished the leadership of the party at an informal meeting of party leaders in Abuja last week that danger awaited the APC if it delayed taking a decision on the issue of zoning.
Meanwhile, the planned alliance between Gbajabiamila and Jibrin to run a joint ticket as speaker and deputy speaker ended yesterday with no agreement reached. Gbajabiamila, from the South-West, is said to be the anointed candidate of Tinubu and the preferred candidate of the party’s hierarchy for the speakership whereas Jibrin is from the North-West just as the President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
Following the contention that the North West cannot produce the House speaker by virtue of the emergence of Buhari, Jibrin it was learnt that Jibrin yesterday agreed to withdraw from the speakership race and team up with Gbajabiamila as deputy speaker. New Telegraph gathered that Jibrin reached out to Gbajabiamila at the weekend declaring his loyalty and planned partnership.
Consequently, Jibrin had organised a press conference in Abuja to formally announce his withdrawal from the race and support for Gbajabiamila.
But the conference, which was initially fixed for 11am, was later shifted to 2.00pm, yet it did not hold as Jibrin and his team were said to be holding meetings to strengthen out the terms of the proposed alliance.
New Telegraph, however, learnt that Gbajabiamila’s supporters were divided over the overtures from Jibrin. A member who is in support of Gbajabiamila’s ambition, said some of them were not comfortable with Jibrin because they suspect that he wanted to use the Lagos lawmaker to enhance his ambition.
Attempts to get Gbajabiamila and Jibrin to give reasons why the press conference was stalled were unsuccessful.
http://naijafussion..com/2015/05/swest-lawmakers-dump-tinubus-senate.html