Senators – elect and members of House of Representatives have risen up to condemn the method of selection of Sen. Godswill Akpabio as APC preferred candidate for senate president, as derogatory and unconstitutional.
As a result therefore, the majority of members-elect of the 10th National Assembly have vowed to make independent choice of leaders at the inauguration of the parliament, come 13th May, 2023.
The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC had on Monday announced Akpabio as its consensus candidate while also chosing Hon. Tajudeen Abbas for the speakership of the House.
But in a publication by a national newspaper Tuesday evening, it was gathered that the choice was yet to be accepted by majority of the members-elect.
The zoning formula used in selecting Akpabio was reported to have provoked the senators-elect to re-invigorate their earlier quest to vote for their choice in the duo of Abdulaziz Yari and current Chief Whip of the Senate, Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu for the top two leadership positions in the Red Chambers.
The same feeling is currently prevailing in the Lower House, the House of Representatives.
Allegedly for fear of victimization, some members who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that choices ran at variance with the open contest practice which the President-elect benefitted from, during the APC presidential primaries.
A prominent Northwest Senator-Elect who pleaded not to be named, described the actions of Tinubu as not only disappointing but provocative, saying that Akpabio was an unpopular candidate.
He said it was dictatorial to impose an individual candidate on them, adding, “The plan of the APC to impose a candidate on the National Assembly is dead on arrival”.
The lawmaker recalled that President Buhari, Northern Governors and the APC pushed for zoning of the Presidency to the South without selecting any preferred presidential candidate, regretting “rather than allow an open contest to give all candidates from the region equal opportunity, the president-elect and the party decided to handpick someone for them”, pointing out “Tinubu would have stood no chance of becoming President if the president and the party leadership had drafted a candidate into the contest”.
Similarly, another third-term senator from north east disclosed that northern Senators were working across party lines to ensure that democratic tenets prevailed on the inauguration day, while a senator-elect from the South South recalled that in 2019, the party avoided the mistake of foisting their preferred candidate on the legislature but rather announced the zoning of the position to the North East which availed candidates from the region to test their popularity at the floor of the Senate in which the current Senate President , Ahmad Lawan later emerged after defeating Senate Ali Ndume.
Forcing candidates on the legislature was against the provisions of the constitution, he said pointing out “We won’t be cowed to the bidding of the president-elect.
“As a matter of fact, we already have our own candidates who we are sure will work in the best interest of Nigerians, acrimony free Senate and executive arm of government.
“To say the least, we are confident in the joint ticket of Senators Yari and Kalu. Either of them is good to go for any of the two positions as Senate President and Deputy.
In that newspaper report also, a member-elect of the House of Representatives from one of the opposition parties told the national newspaper in confidence in that APC was in for a shock.
According to him, the opposition parties are “working assiduously to upstage the ruling party”, boasting with their numerical strength of 183 members-elect.
The Rep-elect recalled that the minority caucus had already set up a 13 man committee to recommend amongst its ranks people of high moral integrity, competence and track record to contest for speaker and deputy speaker of the House.
