June 6,2023.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!With just one week to inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is stuck in a point at which a crucial decision must be made to ensure that its preferred candidates emerge presiding officers of both chambers of the federal legislature.
The governing party, LEADERSHIP gathered, is grappling with the exigency of having to deal with aspirants for the Senate presidency under its platform, Senators Abdulaziz Yari, Orji Kalu and Osita Isunazo, who have refused to shift ground even though the party’s zoning arrangement did not favour them.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leadership of the APC had endorsed Akpabio as Senate President and Senator Barau Jubrin as his deputy.
Hon Tajudeen Abbass also received the blessing of Tinubu and APC as the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, with Hon Benjamin Kalu as his deputy.
But some APC lawmakers under the aegis of G6 Coalition fiercely opposed the zoning arrangement, describing it as “an unconstitutional imposition of leadership of the 10th Assembly by forces outside the National Assembly.”
A crucial meeting scheduled by President Tinubu with federal lawmakers elected on the platform of opposition political parties for yesterday (Monday) at the presidential villa, Abuja, was postponed.
It was also gathered that another meeting between the president and APC lawmakers billed to hold last Sunday was also cancelled.
A source in the APC told our correspondent that the meetings were shifted following the refusal of the party’s aspirants vying for principal offices of the National Assembly to withdraw from the race to pave way for the party’s anointed candidates.
“There is no way a resolution would come out of any meeting with the lawmakers-elect who are divided among themselves. Until the APC aspirants agree to respect the zoning arrangement of the party, there cannot be any consensus ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the 10th National Assembly,” the source who did not want his name in print said.
Meanwhile, all appears not to be well in the camp of Senators Yari, Kalu and Izunaso over who to finally support for the office of the Senate president.
It was gathered that Kalu is threatening Yari’s supporters with a defection to the camp of the president.
Trouble started when the trio who are yet to decide on who to position for the office of Senate president met last night in a popular hotel (names withheld) outside the outskirts of Abuja to take a final position on who to support.
It was gathered that after heated arguments among the trio and their sponsors, including a serving presiding officer of the Senate, who has vowed never to toe the path of the president and National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, those who spoke in support of the former Governor of Zamfara State outnumbered those who spoke in support of Kalu and Izunaso.
An enraged Kalu was said to have threatened to dump the group for the president’s choices if the group refused to rescind its decision not to support him for the Senate presidency after the party had long zoned the office to the south.
The former Abia State governor and chief whip of the Senate was said to have told Yari’s sponsors that it would be the height of religious insensitivity on the path of the former Zamfara governor to want to occupy the office of the Senate president when the president and his vice are both Muslims.
It was also learnt that after very strong arguments for and against Yari’s ambition, which almost resulted in fisticuffs, Kalu threatened to walk out of the meeting.
Sensing the implications of the walkout he might stage and having threatened to dump the group, he was offered the position of the deputy Senate president and Izunaso, chairman, Senate committee on Appropriation.
It was not clear if Kalu and Izunazo accepted the offer but sources at the meeting told this paper that Kalu might eventually dump the anti-zoning group of lawmakers.
“With the way things are going on now in our camp, Kalu might dump the group because of their selfishness and insensitivity to national peace and unity,” the source told our correspondent in confidence.(www.naija247news.com)
