The controversy rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over the zoning of National Assembly leadership positions, Thursday took another dimension as the aggrieved Senate presidential aspirants openly threatened to disobey the party’s directive to have Senator Godswill Akpabio as the next Senate President.
The senators-elect who made the declaration include former Zamfara state Governor Abdulaziz Yari, former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor-Kalu; and Senator Sani Musa, among other contestants for the Senate’s top seat.
The threat came as the APC admitted it never had enough consultations before arriving at the choices of those picked for the leadership positions in the next legislature.
The party had zoned the Senate Presidency to South-south and zeroed in on Senator Godswill Akpabio, the former governor of Akwa Ibom state, with Barau Jibrin as Deputy Senate President.
Also, Tajudeen Abass was picked for the position of the Speaker House of Representatives while Banjamin Kalu emerged the choice for deputy speaker.
Contestants for the speakership position had also taken their protest to the party secretariat, Wednesday, during which the APC leadership promised to look into their complaints.
…Senate too
And like their colleagues in the Green Chamber, senators-elect eyeing the top job in the Red Chamber threatened to go against the party’s directives if it failed to rescind its decision.
While openly rejecting the zoning as announced by the APC during a visit to its National Working Committee (NWC) at the APC House Thursday in Abuja, the aggrieved contestants also presented a jointly signed protest letter to the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
Speaking during the visit, Senator-elect Yari said any attempt to zone Senate Presidency out of the Northern Nigeria would spell doom for the ruling party.
According to Yari, the President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu got 63.4 percent of the total votes from the north and 36.6 percent from the South (Tinubu’s base).
He said Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a northerner, got 68.8 percent of the total votes from the north, and 33.2 percent from the southern part.
“So, now if there is anyone who can say we own APC, we own the President-elect, it is the 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 that the power of anyone is absolute, only God’s power 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 next election, we should understand that we are elected and are going to be looking for another election.
“So, whatever decision you are going to take, we are expecting you as a friend to tell the President-elect not to go there.
“We expect that you give us at least a fair play. Now, if you look at the calculation of what we have in the Senate it is not a magic we are thinking of, because if care is not taken, if we play the way you presented to us, it’s not acceptable.
“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 this for the best interest of the party because where we are talking today (APC secretariat), if we from the North take another decision, it will not be good to all of us and it will become history which we don’t want to happen. It is only if we do justice that will prevent that from happening, but we should all pick our pen and write it down today, which is 11th May. Anything from the contrary, the Northern Nigeria will take another decision,” Yari said.
While making case for the South-east, Senator Uzor-Kalu appealed to the NWC to give every part of the country a sense of belonging to feel that they are Nigerians.
Kalu said: “I appeal to you people to cede something reasonable and valuable to the South-east. We are going to rebuild the party and the most important thing is starting earlier. Four years is like four days and it is like going back for election in the next few years. And give us opportunity to rebuild this great party.
“I am not saying that what you people have done does not look very nice, but it is wrong micro-zoning to individuals, penciling people’s name. It is undemocratic and against the constitutional right of all the aspirants. Section 51 of the Constitution, did not approve that for the National Assembly.
“So, we are going to challenge it. We are going to say no to it. I am a party man, I am a believer of the party and I have never disobeyed this party. This is first time we are going to say no to the directive of the party. We are going to say that we are not going to do this in the floor of the Senate.”
“This is not acceptable to us. I will not want to do it and I will not want to disrespect the party. And it is still early enough about 18 to 19 days to resolve it. It will be better that the party returns to the drawing board, deliberate and call a consultative meeting,” the former governor warned.
Making his own grievances known, Senator Musa from Niger state, appealed to the party’s leadership to correct what he termed injustice against the people of the North-central.
Senator Musa said: “We have been saying that the status quo cannot continue but if we do not allow internal democracy to prosper, how do we expect to change things? We are the ones talking about certain principles we want to see but we are not acting it. This issue can be corrected.
“I am very sure you will go back and take a look, especially when we are talking about internal democracy because even the issue of the National Assembly is an issue of internal democracy.
“As leader of the North-central, we had a caucus meeting before the decision was taken and after it was taken. The caucus agreed that I should make my declaration known to Nigerians. We looked at the secularity of the country and our caucus now said we should go for the deputy senate president. Your statement was a blow to us and we felt are we really part of this country? Because when you are even talking about the North, we have always been at the receiving end.
“I would have expected my brothers from the Northwest to stand against this template and say let us toe the line we have been towing since 1999. This injustice needs to be corrected. We have 5 of six Governors, 11 of 19 senators. We will, however, make sure that no party takes our chance inside that chamber. It is going to be an APC affair.
“We will abide by the party, but 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. This injustice, we need to correct. We have six geopolitical zones. The president is from Southwest, we have vice president for the North-east. We have the office of Senate President, Deputy Senate President Speaker and Deputy Speaker. It is only fair to throw this out to the other four geopolitical zones.”
Adamu responds
Responding to the aggrieved lawmakers -elect, the APC national chairman, Senator Adamu, openly took responsibility for what transpired and promised that the party would go back to the drawing board to make some changes where necessary.
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 take absolute responsibility for that.
“Yes, there was 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. We must as democrats open up.
“We will go back to the drawing board. We owe our party that duty to take a look whether what was done can be changed; what was done needs some changes or reviews.
“So, hold the fire until the last word is heard from us. We are the custodians of the party as NWC but we are not acting alone. The voice of the President-elect is an essential voice. We must accommodate him, the best we can. I will not compromise on that.”
On the issue of the North-central as raised by Musa, Adamu said: “I remain tongue tied talking about North-central. 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 vote is not essential thing. Vote remains the essential thing in every democracy because vote is the opinion of the populace.”
