APC and the Test of Leadership The current power tussle over the NationalAssembly leadership positions is a potential crisis for the All Progressives Congress, writes
Anayo Okolie
Without any iota of doubt, all is not well with the All Progressives Congress (APC) following its inability to resolve the impending crisis in the party over clash of interests in the zoning of National Assembly positions. Ordinarily, the business of electing the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives is vested in the hands of the lawmakers and the constitution of the country makes it very clear.
According to Chapter V, Part 1 (Composition of National Assembly) sections 47-50 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, “There shall be a National Assembly for the Federation which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.”
Section 48 adds that the Senate shall consist of three Senators from each state and one from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, while 49, subject to the provisions of this Constitution, says that the House of Representatives shall consist of three hundred and sixty members representing constituencies of nearly equal population as far as possible, provided that no constituency shall fall within more than one state.
In section 50(1), the constitution states that “There shall be:(a) a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.”
Already, the candidates jostling for the position of the Senate President are Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume from Benue State, Chairman, Senator Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Ahmed Lawan from Yobe State and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ecology and Environment, Senator Bukola Saraki from Kawara State.
For the Speakership, the major contestants are former Chairman, House Committee on Customs, Yakubu Dogara from Bauchi State and the incumbent Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila from Lagos State. Others are Abdulmumini Jibrin, Prof Mojeed Alabi, Adam Jagaba, Pally Iriase, Mohammed Tahir Monguno and Isreal Ajibola Famurewa.
No doubt, the North-east, North-west, Southwest, North-central were the geo-political zones that played key role in the success recorded by the APC in the March 28, presidential election.
In view of the zoning arrangement, therefore, since the president is from North-west and the vice-president from South-west, it leaves the North-central and North-east with nothing. It is for this reason that many believe that the right thing to do is to cede the position of the Senate President and Speakership to North-west and North-east, respectively.
Though zoning is not in the nation’s con- stitution, political parties allow the initiative in order to ensure for an even distribution of political offices at the national, state and local government level. Zoning is done to ensure equity, equality, cohesion, trust and above all, stability to ensure collective support for any political authority.
Besides, the APC is a coalition of about five major political parties in the country. It is made up of the defunct All Nigerians People Party (ANPP), Congress Progressives Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and a faction of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
ACN has produced the vice-president-elect, Professor Yemi Osibanjo who is Tinubu’s candidate and conceding the Senate Presidency to either Akume or Lawan and the House Speakership to Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, what it would mean is that ACN has taken everything except the CPC which has produced the president-elect, General Buhari, leaving nothing for other parties involved in the struggle.
For equity, the Saraki Senate Presidency is seen by many as representing the PDP component of the alliance because without the PDP machine, Buhari wouldn’t have become president.
At the moment, the pendulum seems to swinging in support of Saraki, but the APC national leader is said not to be comfortable with his candidacy, even though he long promised to ensure he gets it. One of the reasons being bandied around is that Saraki has a mind of his own and may not be easily influenced by Tinubu, when elected Senate President.
Tinubu, who had initially deployed his machinery in support of Akume had beat a retreat following the insistence of the North-east zone to produce the Speaker of the House as against the interest of the South-west, where Tinubu has positioned Gbajabiamila. Now, Tinubu is backing Lawan, who is also said to be Buhari’s most preferred.
A majority of the APC lawmakers believe that Tinubu’s insistence on making Gbajabiamila speaker would be resisted by his party members and bring about a repeat of the Aminu Tambuwal scenario, where the members jettisoned the then PDP preferred choice, Hon. Akande Adiola in 2011 and went for a more credible and acceptable candidate.
Sadly, the seemingly unhealthy developments have thrown up divisions in the party. The group of G5 Governors and G37 lawmakers also called New PDP that defected from the PDP to APC has formed Equity Group while the founding members of APC head for Legacy Group. The Equity group, populated by former members of PDP is reaching out to their colleagues in the PDP for support and the PDP senators, no doubt, might queue behind Saraki and Dogara to undermine Tinubu.
Recall that the PDP crisis started about the time Tambuwal declared interest in the speakership and the inability of the party to calm the situation sky-rocketed the crisis and pushed many to defect to the APC, which resulted in the disgraceful defeat of the party in the just concluded general election.
Though the National Working Committee (NWC) has met twice to resolve the issue, they both ended in deadlock. In the alternative, a leadership meeting of the party was also summoned on May 22 at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, to reach a compromise but that was still far-fetched.
Buhari’s disposition, according to party members, has been to give free hands to the incoming federal lawmakers to elect their leaders without external interferences. But emerging facts have shown that Buhari is not completely neutral as he prefers Lawan and is working from the underground to actualize his presidency, using Tinubu who desires a North-east Senate President to fester his own speakership agenda.
As it is, the zoning palaver has become a serious crisis in the hands of the APC, such that has elicited concern from other members of the party, including the Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, who has warned against further delay of the zoning arrangement if the APC does not want the PDP to reap from the present contradictions as typified by the zoning crisis.