The sharing of the leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly has torn the Northern part of Nigeria apart as the jostling for key posts among the three zones is now threatening the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The APC had picked the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio (South-South), and Senator Barau Jibrin (North West) as preferred candidates for the senate presidency and deputy senate presidency of the incoming 10th assembly.
It equally anointed the member representing Zaria Federal Constituency, Tajudeen (North West), and Ben Kalu (South East) as preferred candidates for speakership and deputy respectively.
However, the decision has yet to sit well with critical stakeholders including the aspirants who were not adequately consulted before the sharing formula was announced.
However, Iwitnesslive has learnt that the action of the APC National Working Committee has torn the Northern lawmakers apart as the three regions are clamouring for the top seats.
North-West is insisting that having contributed the largest number of votes to APC’s victory, it deserved to be compensated with the Senate presidency regardless of religious considerations.
Our correspondent reliably learnt that the zone is not contented despite getting two of the top positions just as the Northeast which is insisting that it has to be considered for the House of Reps Speakership despite producing the Vice President.
The zone argued that the Southwest produced both the President and the Speaker during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo when Oladimeji Bankole became the Speaker and they should be considered this time.
Meanwhile, the north-central is now crying marginalisation as it was not considered for any position right from the presidency to the legislatures and judiciary.
The Northeast and North-Central are unhappy they were sidelined, wondering why North-east would take two out of the four offices.
Senator Sani Musa on behalf of his colleagues, Senators-elect from the North-Central zone told a meeting with the National Working Committee of APC on Sunday.
“Looking at the secularity of this country and the permutations, we took the risk (same faith ticket) and we were successful. There are certain times we should not push our luck. We have competent Senators-elect from everywhere. We have a Muslim president. We have a Muslim vice President and we thought that at least, the third person should be a Christian.
“As we are going, I had expected that the party will look at those who are very few. I think four or five of us declared an interest.
And I thought in the wisdom of the party, they will invite just those five of us which they can manage. If you can manage us like this after a decision has been proposed, and decisions have been reached, it would have been easier if you sat with us before that proposed decision was issued and said there can only be one leader and we are first among equals. But the party didn’t do that.
“We have been saying that the status quo cannot continue but if we do not allow internal democracy to prosper, how do we expect to change things? We are the ones talking about certain principles we want to see but we are not acting it. This issue can be corrected.
“As the leader of the North-Central, we had a caucus meeting before the decision was taken and after it was taken. The caucus agreed that I should make my declaration known to Nigerians. We looked at the secularity of the country and our caucus now said we should go for the deputy senate president. Your statement was a blow to us and we felt, are we really part of this country? When you talk about the North, we have always been at the receiving end.
“Our geographical settings have become like institutions. You cannot give positions to individuals.
“I would have expected my brothers from the North-West to stand against this template and say let us toe the line we have been toeing since 1999. This injustice needs to be corrected. We (APC) have five of six governors and 11 of 19 senators. We will make sure that no party takes our chance inside that chamber. It is going to be an APC affair.
“I have seen a situation where one zone has the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Staff to the President, the President of the Senate and the roof didn’t come down but the little we (North Central) have, Deputy Senate President, is taken away.
“We need to correct this injustice. We have six geopolitical zones. The president is from the South-West, we have a vice president from the North-East. We have the office of Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker. It is only fair to give these to the other four geo-political zones.”
