There were concerns at the weekend within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that the party could lose control of the National Assembly following subtle threats by aggrieved aspirants for leadership positions in the 10th Assembly to ditch APC.

This came to light on a day Sunday Vanguard learnt that some northern and southwestern statesmen, including two former heads of state and traditional rulers, had waded into the rancour and spoken with some key lawmakers-elect to douse the tension the matter has created in the polity.

The party had, last week, unveiled a zoning formula to elect principal officers of the 10th Assembly, a situation that has pitched most of the contenders against the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC).

In the formula, the party had named Godswill Akpabio (APC Akwa Ibom) and Jibrin Barau (APC Kano) as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively.

It also named Tajudeen Abbas (APC Kaduna) and Benjamin Kalu (APC Abia) as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively.

However, at a parley between contenders for the Senate presidency and Adamu, one of them, a senator representing Niger East, Sani Musa, noted that membership of the party was voluntary and not compulsory.

“The party has to put in mind that this is a voluntary thing.

Membership of a party is voluntary but my principles and our principles are not voluntary. It is what we are built of and we can stand by that”, Musa stated.

Some insiders in the APC interpreted the senator’s statement to mean that the aggrieved contenders for principal offices in
the National Assembly were weighing all the options available to them to checkmate the zoning formula, including working against APC candidates on election day on the floor of parliament or outright defection.

APC has a narrow lead over all the opposition lawmakers-elect put together in both chambers of the National Assembly and the
opposition lawmakers-elect have vowed to use that advantage to position two of their own as Senate-President and Speaker.
APC boasts of 59 senators-elect while the opposition parties have 50.

For the House of Representatives, APC has 160 members-elect, opposition parties have 200.

Both chambers need only a simple majority to elect their principal officers. One of the insiders, a party official who did not want his name mentioned as he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said that, consequent upon the development, there was pressure being mounted on Adamu to convene a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) to review the zoning formula and
come up with a final verdict.

He said: “The challenge we have was lack of adequate consultations. If the matter had been taken to the NEC, various stakeholders would have been present and no one would have defied NEC resolutions. If there is no NEC resolution, some of these contenders could align with the opposition and leave the party in protest. But, as it were, this formula is more like a ‘cabal’ thing. Only a few persons took that decision on zoning.

We are working to have more members, not to lose our own members because we do not really have an absolute majority in both
chambers.

“What some of us have suggested is to use our governors to reach out to certain key opposition lawmakers-elect because these our aggrieved contenders are ready to work with the opposition to upturn the formula.

“We are also hoping to use the NEC to pacify these contenders with promises of juicy offers.

However, like what one of them said, Adamu has not honoured past agreements even when it had to do with something as little as
refunding fees paid for nomination forms by those who contested for NWC positions in our last year’s elective national convention”.


Dark horses

Worried by the tension the battle for the 10th National Assembly principal offices has generated, statesmen, including two former military heads of state and some first class traditional rulers in the North and South-West, have intervened and spoken to key senators-elect.

They were said to be proposing alternative candidates as a compromise, possibly dark horses, for Senate President and Speaker.

According to a senator-elect, who spoke to our correspondents in Abuja on the condition of anonymity, yesterday, the elder
statesmen took the task individually and reached out to key senators particularly from the North, to give preference to Nigeria’s unity
and national cohesion in their actions over the election of the Assembly leadership.

A source said that in their talks with the senators-elect, the major appeal was for the North not to use their higher numerical
strength to emasculate the Senate in the contest for its leadership.

“Instead, they appealed to us to emulate the APC governors from Northern Nigeria who in the most patriotic manner gave all their
support to the emergence of a southern candidate for the party and did all within their powers for the victory of Bola Tinubu from the
South-West at the polls”, he stated.

They are talking to us, especially those who have declared interest in the presidency of the senate to drop their legitimate ambitions for the sake of unity and cohesion of Nigeria and support the Southern region in producing it” The senator- elect, however, confirmed that the northern senators were not initially against the South producing the Senate President but that they were piqued because of the way the presidentelect unilaterally went for Akpabio.

“But, with the seriousness of the moves by these patriotic and highly respected statesmen and the esteemed traditional rulers, I see
the major contender from the North, Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari dropping the gauntlet and supporting a more credible and consensus vibrant aspirant from the South”, he stated.

“Apart from the manner he was chosen by the president-elect, northern senators see an Akpabioled Senate as an attempt to bring
back the agitations for resource control, something they loathe with passion. “We can not trust his leadership as he is unlikely going to protect the interest of the North”.

Apart from Senator Orji Kalu, the other senator-elect in the race for Senate President from the SouthEast is Senator Osita Izunaso
(Imo-West), a former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas and Housing.


Call for NEC meeting

Also, yesterday, the Coalition of APC Support Groups asked the Adamu-led NWC to immediately take steps to convene a meeting
of NEC.

According to them, the NEC meeting had become very important in order to stave off a possible backlash from lawmakerselect as a result of the controversial zoning formula adopted for the next National Assembly.

They also demanded that the Senate presidency be ceded to the South-East in the interest of equity and justice.

On his part, Zamfara West senator-elect, Abdulaziz Yari, urged his colleagues to eschew ethno-religious sentiments in the choice of the next Senate

President. Yari, in a message to senators-elect, urged them not to disappoint their constituents as their actions, inactions, omissions and commissions may affect them directly or indirectly.

The Coalition of APC Support Groups, in a letter to Adamu and signed by its National Secretary, Mazi Peter Okoroafor, said the National Assembly leadership ought to have emanated through due consultations with stakeholders of the party in all the
zones.

A copy of the letter read to journalists by Adanu Isaiah noted that a situation whereby decisions of zoning formula of the 10th
National Assembly leadership was taken by a few persons and imposed on the party was tantamount to provoking opposition, rejection and illfeelings among the party faithful.

Meanwhile, chieftain of the party, Olujonwo Obasanjo threw his weight behind the APC zoning formula, describing as the best combination.

Speaking in Abuja, Olujonwo, the son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, appealed to lawmakers-elect to support
the decision of the party and rally around the consensus candidates for the good of democracy and the incoming administration.

He specifically endorsed the choice of Akpabio as Senate President and Tajudeen Abbas as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Admitting the principle of separation of powers among the three arms of government, he, however, argued that it was a fallacy that such separation is absolute.

slivertongue:

“Apart from the manner he was chosen by the president-elect, northern senators see an Akpabioled Senate as an attempt to bring
back the agitations for resource control, something they loathe with passion. “We can not trust his leadership as he is unlikely going to protect the interest of the North”.



Absolute rubbish

OneCandleAway:


It's always about the interest of the north.

You don't contribute any meaningful thing to generate revenue for Nigeria but want to dictate and rule over others that contribute

slivertongue:


The statement by Yari has no connection to the interest of the North, it's the interest of a few ruling elites. The North contributes alot to the welfare of NIGERIA but majority of the elites are a burden

OneCandleAway:


The agricultural products we pay for.

Can you compare to niger delta oil?

Odin13:
Legendhero..

What’s coming is way bigger than tinubu akpabio , Yoruba and southwest..

Just keep bragging .. and let your oga keep flaunting akpabio..

LegendHero:


Lol all this one na story. We heard more than this speculation during the APC primaries. If they don’t decamp during the primaries and election, what will their decamping benefit them if they do it now?

Hear this, Jagaban is not someone you can threaten, he is a true born politician and not a coward.

What is the North? Who are the North? What part of the North exactly is making this noise? Yari and his boys? Same North Tinubu took from Atiku and Buhari loyalists. North ko, Nott ni.

Ati to je bolosa lowo, o ku baba eni ti o bo.

Odin13:


Why is tinubu runing from Nigeria

Out of buhari 12 million votes .. he inherited 2.7 million .. northern votes .. which he has to rig and suppressed and even has to pay for..

The north remains Yoruba political masters that they can do without.. that truth and fact.. you here is bragging on how your oga inherited buhari’s numbers.. and another keep asking who are the north., wake up..

What’s going for asiwaju is his Muslim ticket.. and anything fit happen even with that ..

Or don’t you know.. northerners don’t trust Yoruba .. or you think they will give in to tinubu the Sp’

Better start facing realty and not being another babajide of tvc..

… nothing even talking the court process ..

It Ben tinubu is this confident as you

slivertongue:


The statement by Yari has no connection to the interest of the North, it's the interest of a few ruling elites. The North contributes alot to the welfare of NIGERIA but majority of the elites are a burden

slivertongue:


The statement by Yari has no connection to the interest of the North, it's the interest of a few ruling elites. The North contributes alot to the welfare of NIGERIA but majority of the elites are a burden

EmmyCC:
Let the evil party scatter.

LegendHero:


Lol who is Buhari and how has his 12 million vote bring him the presidency before the 2015 coalition with the SW? You guys just speak thinking you’re talking to minority tribe like Ibos. Oga na Yoruba person you dey follow talk.

If Northerner don’t trust Yoruba then why did they give Tinubu the votes? Abi na alien vote am for North? You can’t fly the dummy of rigging coz how exactly will Tinubu be able to rig in the heart of Kano to get those kind of votes he had if there is no Northern support? If it’s that easy to rig where you’re unpopular, why Tinubu no go rig for Anambra or Enugu?

By the way, you’re non consequential in that said North and the people that move the votes are with Tinubu. A Yoruba defeated your Atiku in the same 19 Northern states, Abiola did the same so I don’t know what exactly you are bragging with.

North feel no hate towards Tinubu as we have seen in how the governors stood with him to the end. It is losers in Atiku camp that are trying to create some animosity and even Yari knows he’s going nowhere with his noise.

Lastly, Yoruba are majority tribe who cow to no one. It has been four occasions now that a Yoruba candidate won through the ballot for presidential election. What else do you need to prove that Yoruba have larger stake in Nigeria?