Politics
NASS leadership: Aspirants make final push
OLUSESAN LAOYE, OKUNADE ADEKUNLE and YUSUF MOHAMMED
The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, APC, took a turn for the worse with the victory of Femi Gbajabiamila and the open ballot primaries to choose between Senator BukolaSaraki and Senator Ahmed Lawan.
The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Gbajabiamila on Saturday, won the mandate of the APC members-elect to be the next Speaker.
According to the National Secretary of the party, Mallam Mai Mala Buni, out of the 209 APC members-elect, 183 signed the attendance register, while 161 others voted at the straw poll, with about 22 others either abstaining or staging a walk-out.
Out of the 161 votes, Gbajabiamila was able to get 154 votes, Dogara got 3 and 4 votes were invalid.
On the other hand, TahirMonguno scored 153 votes to emerge the sole candidate of the party for the position of Deputy Speaker.
Meanwhile, in the upper chamber, Senator BukolaSaraki’s group has kicked against open ballot primaries stating that it is archaic.
In a press release titled, ‘APC Senators-elect of like minds’ they made their stance known by threatening to walk out should the party go on with the open ballot primary election.
The statement reads: We the Senators elect of Like Minds insist on our position of Open Secret voting process which we believe is in consonance with the provisions of the electoral act, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the universal electoral values.
As responsible citizens of Federal Republic of Nigeria, and leaders in our own right, we have resolved and hereby state that we shall not be part of a process that promotes undemocratic electoral process that may resort to rancorous and uncivil situations which inhibits the rights of individuals to vote for the candidate of their choice, as this process will further divide us than unite members of our party.
In conclusion, we the Senators-Elect of Like Minds wish to state categorically that we will participate only in the constitutional election scheduled for Tuesday, the 9th of June 2015 in line with the rules of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
With just a day to the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly, there are strong indications that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is still struggling to ensure that the election of the leadership of the National Assembly which will be inaugurated tomorrow is hitch free and devoid of rancor and acrimony. The party is also confused on how the appointments to the federal cabinet would pan out given the criticisms that have already dogged the delay and the process.
In a mock election conducted Saturday by the party to elect the leadership of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajiamila won, with Dogara alleging irregularities in the process. At the time of the report, a similar exercise carried out for the Senate President was boycotted by Senator BukolaSaraki with Alhaji Ahmed Lawan emerging in a pole position to get the ticket. Saraki for the umpteenth time has said that the Senate should be allowed to elect its leadership, but last minute indicators point to a likely Lawan led Senate. Lawan hails from Yobe, in North East region, while Saraki is from Kwara in North Central zone.
Already the choice of who leads both Houses of the National Assembly is tearing the leaders apart in the run up to the election. Sources disclosed that there are numerous issues given the party’s leadership headache. Despite the series of meetings held the party is still unable to resolve those issues.
Apart from the issue of the leadership of the National Assembly, Hallmark was reliably informed that the APC leaders are also in state of dilemma on how political appointments would be shared. Sources further inform Hallmark that what is seriously bothering APC leaders is the attitude of the new President, MuhammaduBuhari over those who would be in his team. It was said that right now, the leaders of the party are not privy to those to be appointed as his advisers.
Already the Senate has approved 15 Advisers for the President, without names and this was said to have given the leaders and other stakeholders in the party serious concern as they are kept in the dark on the issue. The party is also worried on whether the list of advisers would have the spread and ethnic balancing so that the government would not be accused of ethnicity or bias.
Hallmark gathered that the APC would not like to face the criticism that trailed the composition of its interim leadership. At that time, the party was accused of bias over the composition of list and key positions were occupied by Muslims. Although President Buhari, before he was sworn in had requested that the APC governors should forward three ministerial nominees to him for consideration, but he later gave them a shocker when he declared that the governors and other leaders of the party could not dictate to him on who to work with. He added that they have the right to give him names while he reserves the right to decide who to pick as he is not duty bound to pick from the list they sent.
The inaugural speech of Buhari stating that he belongs to everybody and he belongs to nobody is another Buhari’s action said to be given party leaders like Senator Bola Tinubu and others serious concern. He is said to have resumed his caucus meeting with those that have been with him since the days of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
A reliable source closed to the APC leader told Hallmark that Tinubu has made it clear to his disciplines that they would need to begin to restrategise on how they would call Buhari to order in the event that he deviates from the agreement. Sources further disclosed that Tinubu’s camp is now jittery and afraid that Buhari may have made up his mind to operate and take decisions without recourse to the leaders, a situation which they argued could cause serious problem for the party in the short run.
Although many still agree that as the President, Buhari has the prerogative to make decisions that concerns the country; however the argument among Tinubu’s group is that he would be made to understand that sustainability, supremacy of the party and collective decision are important to keep his administration running. They believe that any crisis in the party would vindicate detractors who had predicted that the alliance would not last.
On the issue about leadership of the National Assembly, Hallmark was informed at the weekend that the party is still much divided even when Buhari was said to have tactically endorsed Senator Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan from Yobe.
Hallmark was informed that Buhari despite his earlier statement that he would not be involved in the choice of those who would lead the National Assembly confided in some associates that he would prefer Lawan, to any other contestants for the Senate President. The former Vice President, AlhajiAtikuAbubakar was also said to be on the same page with Buhari on the issue of Lawan.
Also, it was said that former President OlusegunObasanjo had sent words to Buhari to show concern over the leadership of the National Assembly, because this would go a long way to determine how his government would operate. He also said that Buhari must ensure that trusted and loyal people are given key positions in the National Assembly to help enhance his government.
Hallmark gathered that Obasanjo’s message to Buhari and the comments from other concerned leaders in the country on the need to ensure that the right choice is made in the election of the National Assembly leaders may have informed Buhari’s change of mind in endorsing Lawan.
One of the numerous issues which our sources said is confronting the APC as well is the person who would be the Majority leader of the Senate. Hallmark gathered that prominent on the list is the immediate past governor of Kano State, AlhajiRabiuKwankwaso. It was revealed that the positioning of Kwankwaso as the Majority Leader of the Senate was initiated by some Senators-elect who have been close allies of Kwankwaso since his days in the PDP. The source disclosed further that the Senators push for Kwankwaso to emerge as the Senate Leader is because they see him as a bridge builder, given his pedigree as a former minister, two term governor and one time House of Representative member.
Those who are not favorably disposed to Kwankwaso becoming the Senate Leader are said to be minimal, and their argument that he is a first time Senator was deflated because he would not be a newcomer in the National Assembly and in the procedure that operates in its leadership. This is because Kwankwaso was a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives during the aborted third republic. The notion in the APC now ahead of the inauguration of the National Assembly is that Saraki may still be in contention for this position if Lawan, from the North East eventually gets the Senate Presidency.
What it now means is that the position of Senate Leader will be contested between the North Central and the North West.
Speaking with Hallmark on the development, the National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, clarified that the party would handle the appointments in the APC government and NASS leadership issue in its own way. He pointed out that as far as they are concerned in APC, the party has no crisis going on as to those who would work with President Buhari and who would preside over the National Assembly affairs.
According to Alhaji Mohammed, the said crisis in the party over the issue of appointments and National Assembly was in the imagination of those who are not willing to see the success of the party in government. He pointed out that it is for this reason that they are frequently peddling the rumour to discredit the leadership of the party, which is still very intact without any rancor. He maintained that whatever the outcome is would be in the best interest of the country, as the party is looking beyond now and how to project the country from its current state.
He stressed that APC cannot experience disunity at the stage it gets now, since it did not experience division when the party was critically sharing positions among merger-parties.
“Our party would handle the NASS leadership and appointment issue in its own way. We are united and will continue to be. It is some elements who do not want us to remain united that were frequently peddling information that we are in crisis. Can a party that did not experience crisis during sharing of positions when we merged, now have problem with ordinary NASS leadership and appointments?
Meanwhile, the meeting of the APC leaders and stakeholders on the numerous issues concerning the party could not reach a consensus on the matter.
