The All Progressives Congress (APC) has settled for the duo of Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) and Femi Gbajabiamila (Surulere 1) as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, in the 9th National Assembly.
Current Senate President Bukola Saraki lost his Kwara Central constituency election to little known Ibrahim Oloriegbe of the APC and won’t be returning to the hallowed Red Chamber.
Saraki’s exit has led to renewed interest and jostle for the position of senate president.
Ahmed Lawan is the APC's choice for the position of Senate President (ThisDay)
Among the contenders for the senate president office from the motley crowd of 109 senators-elect are Lawan, Ali Ndume (Borno South), Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia North) and Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central).
The baggage they carry
Top ranking APC chieftains have told Pulse on condition of anonymity that Ndume and Goje have been ruled out because they reportedly carry some baggage with them.
Senator Ali Ndume/channelstv
The APC will control majority seats in the senate in the 9th national assembly. The governing party has zoned the senate president position to the Northeast region of the country and the Deputy Senate President office to the Northwest region, all of which effectively rules out former Abia governor Kalu.
Ndume, who has told everyone who cares to listen that he consulted APC godfather Bola Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari before publicly declaring his senate presidential ambition, was linked to terrorist sect Boko Haram in 2011 and is considered an ally to departing Senate President Saraki.
“He is Saraki’s man and we can’t trust him with the office after what happened in the 8th senate”, one APC chieftain says on condition of anonymity, while referring to how Saraki outsmarted the APC to nick the senate president position and how he made life difficult for the APC controlled executive, before his formal defection to the opposition PDP in 2018. “We’d be foolish to allow lightning strike again in the same position on our watch by making Ndume senate president. And even though he was finally cleared of Boko Haram charges, the stain remains”, he adds.
Another front-runner for the office, Goje, is not getting the backing of the APC because he is considered a “PDP senator at heart”; even though he is currently a card carrying member of the APC.
The floor of the Nigerian senate.
Goje, who served as Governor of Gombe from 2003 to 2011 on the PDP platform, still heads the juicy Senate Appropriations Committee under Saraki. He defected to the APC in 2014.
“Goje is too close to Saraki. In fact, he worked in cahoots with Saraki to delay the budgets from the executive. All of the budget padding allegations happened on his watch. In fact, some of us in the APC consider him Saraki’s candidate. He is the man Saraki wants to succeed him and we can’t allow Saraki 2.0 in the 9th national assembly”, says another APC chieftain who pleaded that his name be left out of this story.
Danjuma Goje - Former Governor of Gombe state.
Other top ranking APC members spoken to for this story say the governing "can't afford to make another leadership mistake in parliament".
Saraki's camp denies involvement in leadership battle
In fact, the rumour mill churned out stories about Saraki meddling in the leadership battle of the 9th senate.
So strong were the rumours, Senate Minority Leader, Sen Biodun Olujimi, and Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Sen. Dino Melaye,had to issue a strongly worded joint statement, warning APC members to keep Saraki out of their mouths.
“We have noted with regret and surprise how some senators who are interested in becoming the next Senate President and those seeking to occupy various leadership positions in the next Senate have been busy dragging the name of the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, into their schemes for fulfilling their ambitions. We believe those involved in this dirty game are only afraid of the shadow of the Senate President.
Senator Bukola Saraki
"Such people should know that Dr. Saraki is not interested in their plots, schemes and manipulation. His concern now is to continue to provide leadership to the Eighth Senate and to ensure that the Senate achieves as much as it is possible in the remaining two months of its tenure.
“Let it be known that no matter the mischief being sponsored by these spineless people, Dr. Saraki knows that it is the duty of all Senators in the Ninth Senate to elect their Senate President and other leaders. Nobody from outside the Senate has such powers. It is also the right of every Senator to aspire to that position as stated by the constitution.
“We therefore urge the APC gladiators and their handlers to leave Saraki out of their schemes and manipulations”, the statement from Melaye and Olujimi tersely read.
Kalu hasn't given up
Senator-elect Kalu, may just have settled for the Deputy Senate President position, even though the office hasn’t being zoned to the Southeast geopolitical zone by the APC. Kalu, however is having none of it.
"I am a very loyal party man. The party has zoned the senate presidency position to the North-East and I want to respect the party's will but the second position is what we are not going to allow to leave the Southeast”,Kalu said.
Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia state
“So, as far as I am concerned, in the Southeast, I am going to run openly on the floor of the House for the position of Deputy Senate President.
“I am not going to listen to the party neither will I listen to anybody. Nobody that wants to be the Deputy Senate President is more loyal than I am to the party”, he added.
Kalu has also warned that if the deputy senate president position isn’t left for the Southeast, he would join the senate presidency battle.
“I have the capacity for lobbying. I am well known in East, West and North. If the party continues this way, I will run for the senate president if justice is not done to say Southeast bring the deputy senate president”, he said.
L-R: Senate Majority Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan; Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari; Senate President Bukola Saraki; Senator Danjuma Goje; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara
Senators Goje and Ndume were not immediately available for comments for this story.
The senate has a little over three months to vote for presiding and principal officers. The APC has asked Ndume and every contender for parliamentary positions, to respect the supremacy of the party.
The 9th senate is likely to be inaugurated on June 9, 2019.
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