Akpabio: The Uncommon Choice for 10th Senate Presidency
Writes that the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress made a good choice in former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, as President of the Senate of the 10th National Assembly.
The struggle for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly has dominated the media space for weeks on end following the conclusion of the 2023 plebiscites. With the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) managing slim majority among a variegated political parties’ representation in the two chambers of the National Assembly, it was clear that the competition for the presiding officers promises to be fierce.
The usual dominance of a ruling party and a dominant opposition party is now history. The Senate as well as the House of Representatives are now to be populated by a rainbow membership from APC, Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, Social Democratic Party, All Progressive Grand Alliance and Young Progressive Party.
It is therefore not surprising that the struggle and politics of electing the presiding officers would not only be fierce but intriguing from whatever dynamics and factors that shaped the struggle in times past.
From all indications, the front runners in the Senate race for president of the Senate are Senator Godswill Akpabio, a lawyer, former commissioner, former governor of Akwa Ibom State, former Minority Leader of the Senate and former minister; Senator Jubrin Barau, the incumbent Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation; Senator-Elect Abdul Aziz Yari, a former House of Representatives member and former governor of Zamfara State and Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, a former governor of Abia State and incumbent Chief Whip of the Senate. Others are Senator Dave Umahi, a Senator-elect and former governor of Ebonyi State; Senator Musa Sani, a second term member of the Senate and Chairman of Senate Services Committee and Senator Osita Izunaso, a second term senator who was also a one-time APC National Organizing Secretary.
From the onset, it was clear that the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and APC with a majority membership of the Senate was going to have a big say in what eventually pans out on the election of the presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly.
From the experience of the ruling party in 2015 and thereafter, it was a no-brainer that both President and APC National Working Committee would not be ringside observers. Soon enough, the ruling party came out with its preferred position on the presiding officers of the Red and Green Chambers of the 10th National Assembly.
In what was a definitive position that has shaped the race, APC NWC zoned the President of the Senate to South-South, with Senator Akpabio as its preferred candidate and the Deputy Senate President was zoned to North West with Senator Jubrin Barau as its preferred candidate.
Similar arrangement came for the Green Chamber of the House of Representatives with Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abass from North West as its Speaker designate and Hon. Benjamin Kalu from South East as Deputy Speaker designate.
The APC NWC had announced that its decision was based on consultations with the then President-elect and other party leaders on these critical issues with an unprecedented multi-party national parliament.
As is to be expected in a polity with individuals nursing personal ambitions, not a few elected members of the parties and others protested the zoning arrangements of the APC for the presiding officers of the two Chambers of the National Assembly.
Some that are against the seeming zoning arrangement voiced opinions that not enough consultation was done to carry all stakeholders along on the thinking of the ruling APC and the President.
Others rued in that certain regional interests were not accommodated.
But graciously, majority of stakeholders, including those of opposition political parties and governments, are in complete alignment with the position of APC, particularly the uncommon Senator Akpabio- Senator Barau joint ticket. Beyond the uncommon appellation associated with Senator Akpabio, this ticket is also uncommon as it sets out from day one as a joint ticket that is yet to be seen in any other aspiration.
Since the announcement of the joint ticket for Senate presiding officers and the subsequent formation of the National Stability Group of Senators-elect of the 10th Senate, many key stakeholders across party lines have seen to the merit of the preference of the President and the NWC of APC, politicization of the zoning arrangement notwithstanding.
For a start, as at the last count, 45 of APC senators-elect are loyal to the President and APC NWC’s position, leaving out only 14 members who are being vigorously coax to join the bandwagon.
Furthermore, at least 25 other senators-elect from Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, Social Democratic Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, and All Progressives Grand Alliance, have openly identified with the National Stability Group under the leadership of Senators Akpabio and Barau making a tentative list of 70 senators-elect that have signed in support of the President and APC’s NWC position.
To further show the merit and strength of the Stability Group, at least three former President of the Senate aspirants namely Senators Ali Ndume, Senator Dave Umahi and Senator Barau succumbed to the wisdom of the President and APC with Senator Umahi becoming the Chairman of the group’s campaign organization and Senator Ndume as the Director General.
This group position has been further buoyed by the open endorsement of Senator-elect Adam Oshiomhole, a former APC national chairman and former governor of Edo State.
The group, which has engaged in wide consultations and solicitations of support has so far received the blessing of the NWCs of the Labour Party, the SDP, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, whose members are aligned with the Senator Akpabio- Barau ticket.
In their widely accepted consultations across party lines, the Senators Akpabio-Barau ticket had since received the open and reported support of the Governors/Governors-Elect of Ekiti, Lagos, Katsina, Niger, Cross River, Zamfara (PDP) Rivers (PDP), Borno, Nassarawa, Kwara, Ebonyi, Imo and Vice President Kashim Shettima.
As it is, many other governors like that of Ogun, Yobe, Gombe and Oyo and governors-elect like Kano are awaiting the visit of the Stability Group to openly declare their support for the joint ticket of Akpabio-Barau.