The All Progressives Congress on Thursday began negotiations with Senators contesting the Presidency of the Senate for the 10th National Assembly.
The National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, during a meeting with aggrieved Senate presidency aspirants in Abuja, said the party would study the protest letter submitted by the aspirants as part of fresh consultations.
Adamu said the party would study the letter with a view to making amends where necessary.
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The lawmakers in attendance at the meeting included a former Zamfara Governor, Abdulaziz Yari; the senator-elect representing Imo West, Osita Izunaso; Sani Musa (Niger East), Umar Sadiq (Kwara North) and the Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu.
The meeting took place 24 hours after angry contestants for the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives stormed the national secretariat to query the decision by the ruling party and the President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
The development followed the rejection of the party’s adoption of a former Minority Senate leader and ex-Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, for the position of Senate president in the 10th National Assembly.
The APC National Working Committee had endorsed Akpabio from the South-South geopolitical zone as the President of the 10th Senate and Tajudeen Abass from the North-West as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The party also selected Senator Barau Jibrin from the North-West as the Deputy Senate president while Benjamin Kalu from the South-East was nominated as deputy speaker.
But the decision was greeted with protests and anger by other contestants, particularly North-Central lawmakers whose region was sidelined by the party leadership in the power-sharing deal.
The contestants demanded fresh zoning of the principal offices.
Also, the Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum and Governor of Ondo State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu faulted the zoning arrangement adopted by the party leadership.
But responding to complaints during the meeting with aspirants, Adamu acknowledged their objection which he said would be considered by the NWC.
Speaking at the parley which had in attendance the National Deputy Chairman (North) Abubakar Kyari, National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore and others, Adamu said, “As Chairman of the APC and members of the National Working Committee, we take responsibility.
“As Chairman, I take responsibility for what has gone on air. I don’t have to share with you what not to share. I take absolute responsibility for that. And in that spirit, I welcome you to this office on behalf of my colleagues.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), we received members of the lower chamber who are also contesting for the position of the Speakers in the lower chamber and we had similar pronouncements – words of disagreement from them.
“Yes, there were no sufficient or adequate consultations with you who are contesting and it is a simple principle of democracy that you get views and opinions. But the circumstances that we found ourselves in after the elections frustrated our desire.’’
Adamu assures aspirants
As democrats, the ex-Nasarawa State governor said the party leadership would go back to the drawing board and review the decisions taken regarding the zoning.
He stated, “We will go back to the drawing board. We owe our party that duty to take a look at whether what was done could not be changed. What was done needs some changes or reviews. We will take a look at what necessary compelled us to do by the grace of God,’’ Adamu assured the aggrieved contestants.
The APC chairman urged the senators to “hold the fire until the last word is heard from us,” noting that the NWC members are the custodians of the party “but we are not acting alone.”
He noted that “the voice of the President-elect is an essential voice,” adding, “We must accommodate him, the best we can. I will not compromise on that.”
Adamu promised to address the issues raised by his visitors when the President-elect, Bola Tinubu returns to the country.
“We will go back to the drawing board and put our heads together again and see what we will get,” he appeased the senators.
Stressing the importance of Tinubu’s input, he noted, “I cannot preempt that. I will wait until we hold that meeting with Mr President-elect, the same team that we had the same meeting with. If we need to enlarge the committee, we will do so. We will be better informed through contributions that will be made.
“We will go through your memo, line by line, and ensure that we are able to capture the spirit of your presentation and see what will be the best way out of the situation we have.’’
Speaking further, the party leader pledged to deliver justice to everyone and harped on the need for unity in the APC ahead of the May 29 inauguration.
Adamu said, ‘’Whatever you heard is the art of human endeavour and we are not perfect as human beings. We can make mistakes. So, if we find in the course of further consultations, the mistakes that need to be looked at, we will look at them.
“The important thing is that the spirit of the party must be kept alive. We just came out of the election, the whole country looking towards us. We are just counting down to the inauguration on the 29th of this month. Our eyes must stay on the ball but in doing so we must make sure justice will be done. We will do our best as human beings to deliver justice to all and sundry.”
On the omission of the North-Central in the zoning of the National Assembly leadership, the APC chairman said he remained “tongue-tied talking about North-Central.”
Yari fumes
Reacting to Yari’s demand for fair play, Adamu said, “Your argument is extremely plausible. I assure you, we will take a look at what has been given to the public. I don’t want to believe that voting is not an essential thing. The vote remains the essential thing in every democracy because a vote is the opinion of the populace.”
Speaking earlier, Yari said they came to present their letter of grievances to the party, insisting that they were unhappy with the attempt to prevent aspirants within a zone to contest against one another.
While conceding the supremacy of the party, he contended that the performance of each zone in the last elections should be considered in the allocation of offices, noting that this might impact the APC’s outing in the 2027 polls.
He touted the electoral support Tinubu had in the North, citing this as evidence that the region “owns the president-elect.’’
He said, “The President-elect got 63.4 per cent of the (votes from) northern extraction. Where he came from – the South, he got 36.6 per cent. Atiku Abubakar (of the Peoples Democratic Party) from northern Nigeria got 68.8 per cent of the total votes and he got from southern Nigeria, 33.2 per cent.
“So, now, if there is anyone who can say we own the APC; we own the President-elect in northern Nigeria. Without undermining any part of the country, they have given their best and we can understand their situation but justice needs to be done. We should not be blinded, the power of anyone is not absolute but only God is absolute.’’
“We should not look at these four years as 20 years and then, we are going into another election. We are going back to the next election, we should underline that we are elected and we are going to be looking for another election.
‘’So, whatever decision you are going to take, we are expecting you as a friend that works with the President to tell him not to go there. We don’t need rocket science to explain why you can defend what you are trying to do for the betterment of the APC, and for the betterment of the President.”
The ex-Zamfara State governor observed that the issues could be resolved through dialogue and negotiations.
Yari warned that the election of the National Assembly leaders might not favour the ruling party despite its majority in the federal parliament if the impasse was not properly managed.
He added, “We are expecting that you give us at least fair play. Now, if you look at the calculation of what we have in the Senate, it is not magic we are thinking of because if care is not taken if we play the way you presented to us, it is not acceptable. The opposition will do the nomination and they have their way, which is going to be another problem for us.
“So, Mr Chairman, we are not undermining what you are doing but we are doing this for the sake of this party to grow and we are doing the best interest of the party because of where we are talking today. If we from the North take another decision, it will not be good for all of us and it will become history and we don’t want that to happen.
“Only if we do justice, that will protect that from happening. But we should all pick our pen today and write it, which is 11th May. Anything from the contrary, Walahi, northern Nigeria will take another decision.”
In his remarks, Kalu urged the leadership to revisit the micro-zoning of the Senate Presidency.
He warned that though he had never disobeyed the party, however, the leadership should be ready for a shocker on the day of voting ‘’because the aggrieved aspirants will brazenly disobey the party.’’
He said there was nothing wrong in the party’s leadership zoning the positions to geopolitical zones but everything, he said, is fundamentally wrong in micro-zoning it and pencilling down names.
Kalu faults zoning
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Kalu, a two-term governor of Abia State, also made a case for the region, saying that adopting some favoured aspirants was undemocratic.
He said it was wrong for anybody to fault his people in the South-East for not voting for the party during the presidential election for certain reasons.
(Punch)
