Indications have emerged that Senators-elect would meet with President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu after he is sworn in as President on May 29th over the 10th National Assembly leadership.
OsunDaily News reports that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had backed Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin for Senate President and Deputy, respectively.
The ruling party also backed Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu for Speaker and Deputy of the 10th House of Representatives, respectively.
But both Jibrin (APC, Kano) and Abbas (APC, Kaduna) are from the North-west. This has led to the rejection of the endorsement by some senators-elect and the North-central zone.
According to ThisDay, some senators-elect have advised Tinubu to address the sharing of the presiding offices’ crisis to the extent that the North-west concedes one presiding office to the North-central.
The lawmakers-elect claimed that it would be against the spirit of equity to allow a zone to occupy two offices of the presiding offices when the other has none.
According to one of the senators-elect, “We intend to meet Tinubu as President, once he is sworn in between Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss with him this time as the President and Commander-in-Chief.
“We want to lay bare before him the implication of starting off with squabbles and agitation from a zone that feels neglected and cheated.
“We will reason with him on why a zone, the North-west will occupy two offices of presiding officers and another zone, the North-central will have none.
“This is the major position of our meeting on Thursday. To some of us, this is just to lay a landmine of crisis for him as the President.
“He is the President, and he should not start off with agitation and crisis or allow the National Assembly to slip out of his control. If he allows himself to be deceived, then it means that he will inherit the crisis.”
The senators-elect, mostly from the North-central, explained that it is expected that the North-west be allowed to choose from the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the deputy Senate president.
According to the senator-elect, “Senator Jubrin Barau from Kano State and Hon Abbas Tajudeen from Kaduna have been micro-zoned for the offices, without considering the North-central that also contributed substantially to the victory of the APC. For equity, we expect that one of the presiding offices should go to the North-central.”
Betara’s Ambition
When asked about the continued agitation of the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon Aliyu Betara, he said, “From what we gathered, the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, and the Governor Babagana Zulum are not disposed to him becoming the Speaker because of his alleged governorship ambition.
“They seem to be against his cult followership as Muhammadu Buhari. If he becomes the Speaker, then it will be difficult to control him when the tenure of Zulum is over.”
Tinubu’s Body Language
He said that they decided to wait till the swearing-in of Tinubu as President to see his body language in the first appointments that he would make.
He said: “By the time he appoints the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and his Chief of Staff, we can see the direction of his government. For now, we will only be guessing what he will do.”
