The composition of the 10th National Assembly’s leadership will likely throw the ruling All Progressives Congress into chaos as some leading candidates in the race are ready to take on the party should their ambition be truncated with the zoning arrangement.
Some ranking members of the National Assembly have declared their interest in leading the chambers but the ruling party is insisting it has to make a decision that will reflect balance, equity, and justice.
Our correspondent has learnt that the party has strongly considered zoning the Senate President’s office to the South-South so that a Christain occupier would emerge to assuage the feelings of the Christian community in Nigeria since the President-elect and his vice are Muslims.
The President-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has bought into the idea of ceding the Senate presidency to the Christian South while the Northwest which contributed the highest number of votes to the APC victory in the general elections is expected to produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
No doubt, the decision will mean that front runners for both the Senate and House of Representatives Senator Jibrin Barau and Honourable Ahmed Wase would lose out.
Barau from Kano is a Muslim from the Northwest while Wase is from the Northcentral state of Plateau and could be technically out of the race should APC eventually unveil this model.
However, our source has revealed that Barau and Wase are ready for a faceoff with their party should they be schemed out. They have reportedly told aides and friends they would rather go ahead and test their popularity on the floor of their chambers rather than quietly acquiesce to the dictates of the party.
“We are likely going to witness what happened in 2015 when Olusola Saraki led a group of party faithful to go against the dictate of the APC to emerge as leaders in the National Assembly. The party is trying frantically to forestall a repeat of that scenario but Barau and Wase are keen on recreating it if feelers around them are anything to go by.
“Barau has deemed himself so popular among the elected Senators and he has warmed himself into the hearts of new members, particularly through different means including promises of juicy committees. He has gone far and his people are saying he could go ahead and contest should the party’s decision not favour him.
“Wase’s situation is more pronounced because those who are sponsoring him have spent so much money and he is also looking at testing the water even if the zoning arrangement does not favour him. It is indeed an interesting day ahead for the ruling party,” the source said.
