For those that know President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a political leader, he always like to be in charge and dictate the tone of political activities around him, but for the first in his political journey he is facing a litmus test that would define the direction of his presidency.
Tinubu is battling to appease those who facilitated his emergence with one form of gratification or the other. At issue is the plum seat of the Senate President which has seen top chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, APC, struggling to win the support of the former Lagos State Governor.
The agitation, in the past few weeks, has since taken ethnic and religious colouration with the South-South geopolitical zone insisting that the contribution of the zone to the victory of Tinubu should be rewarded with the position of Senate President.
Luckily enough for South-South zone, Tinubu and APC leadership have settled for the former minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio as the next Senate President.
His choice has also received support among governors and some oppositions senators-elect.
For instance, the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Hope Uzodimma, said the governors are hopeful of a landslide victory for Akpabio.
He said, “Well, substantially, for a substitute consensus, by the number of people and by the efforts we have put in place, it is our hope that tomorrow it might even be a consensus event.
“But to the glory of God, we pray for that. And at the same time hoping that, should we go into an election, Akpabio’s acceptance as of today cuts across the political party we belong to.
“In other political parties, there are also some similar minds who are interested in the development and progress of Nigeria; who also understand the need to safeguard democracy as being practiced in Nigeria today. And they are in sync with our preferred candidate.”
Despite the support for Akpabio from all organs of the ruling party, a former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari and a former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu are determined to challenge the directive of the President.
Yari’s support group, led by former Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), has said that no fewer than 67 senators-elect were backing the former governor of Zamfara.
Senator Ningi said: “Those who are talking about money politics should remember how they won their party primaries about six months ago from top to bottom, using money.
“When Senator Ndume made that statement, I actually was taken aback because he is experienced to know that there is no politics that money is not involved but it is not the most critical. In this campaign, it is not about money, especially for our candidate.
“Senators-elect across the camps see this allegation as a deliberate smear on our individual and collective reputation, integrity and image.”
With the inauguration going down in few hours from now, Nigeria’s brand of federalism is unique in many ways. For a President to function optimally and deliver on his electioneering promises with relative ease; there must be a good working relationship between the executive and the legislative arms of government.
Since the return to democracy in 1999, successive presidents have often shown more than a passive interest in those who will become the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Nigerians will not forget in a hurry how the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, shunned calls for making Chuba Okadigbo the Senate President in 1999 as he opted for Evans Enwerem, who a few months after his emergence, eventually made way for Okadigbo.
For President Tinubu, the challenge of picking and supporting a Senate President knowledgeable in partisan feud and management is key. Akpabio, a former chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party has friends and loyalists in Nigeria’s foremost opposition party. In the past few years of fellowship with the APC, he has been able to cultivate a followership of some sort.
In what appears a possible replay of the intrigues in 2011 when then party in power, the PDP settled for Mulikat Akande as the anointed candidate for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, only for her to be outfoxed by Aminu Tambuwal who shortly after his victory defected to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria; the cloud gathering over the speakership of the House is pregnant with meaning.
Two frontline aspirants for the Speakership, Aliyu Betara (Biu/Bayo/Shani and Kwaya Kusar Federal Constituency of Borno State) and Yusuf Gagdi (Pankshin / Kanam / Kanke Federal Constituency of Plateau State) on Sunday stepped down for the anointed candidate of the APC, Tajudeen Abbas, after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu.
Hon Abbas who represents the Zaria Federal Constituency must watch his back for a possible banana peel that swept Akande off her feet in 2011 given the pledge of the opposition led by the PDP to swing a surprise using the collective numerical strength which gives them a slight edge over the ruling APC.
On the other hand, Akpabio may cut the figure of a happy man today following Saturday’s plea by Vice President Kashim Shettima that the ruling party cannot afford to have another Muslim as Senate President, with the number one and two positions already taken by Muslims.
But except he is overwhelmingly voted for by APC senators-elect, the former Akwa Ibom State Governor might just return to the Senate as a floor member as he is reportedly not in the good books of his PDP counterparts, given the manner he left the party after repeated assurances that he wasn’t interested in leaving for the ruling party.
The rebellion of Bukola Saraki and his new-PDP colleagues in collaboration with compromised APC members which produced the Senate President in Buhari’s first term, readily comes to mind.
As it were, Tinubu craves a loyal parliament, a replica of the 9th Assembly which literary chorused ‘Aye’ to everything request made by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
What he does not have to turn that dream into reality with ease is that both chambers this time, are likely to be more independent in decision making, even going against the will of the party that nominated and sponsored their elections. The day is a long walk for President Tinubu, Akpabio and the APC.
