Battle for 10th National Assembly leadership hots up.

The ongoing race for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly reached fever-pitch last week with an announcement by Senate spokesperson, Senator Bashir Ajibola, that the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, would unveil the zoning formula of the party after Ramadan: That is, after Thursday, April 20, 2023.

Amazingly, aspirants have sprung up from five of the six-geo-political zones in the country, regardless of the parliamentary tradition, rules and convention governing the emergence of the majority caucus and the presiding officers of the NASS.

The incumbent Senate President, Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) comes from the North-East geo-political zone, just as Senator Ali Ndume, (Borno South) and Senator Danjuma Goje, (Gombe Central).

Senator Sani Musa (Niger East) is from the North Central; Jibrin Barau (Kano Central) hails from the North West, as well as Senator Abdul’Aziz Yari (Zamfara West); Senator Orji Kalu, (Abia North), Senators Osita Izunaso (Imo West) Peter Ndubueze (Imo North), and Dave Umahi, (Ebonyi South) all hail from the South-East; Godswill Akpabio (Akwa-Ibom North-West) comes from the South-South.

For obvious reasons, the South-West geo-political zone where President-elect, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, comes from, is conspicuously absent from the list of aspirants.

This same politics applies to the Speakership of the House of Representatives, for which incumbent Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, (Surulere I, Federal Constituency, Lagos), has recused himself despite feelers that he is eyeing a return to the position if the position of Chief of Staff (CoS) to the president does not come through for him.

Unlike the Senate, the race for the Speakership has only aspirants from four of the six-geopolitical zones, namely North-Central, North-East, North-West and South-East.

The nine aspirants are: North-Central geo-political zone, Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau) and Tunji Olawuyi (APC, Kwara); North-East – Muktar Betara (APC, Borno); South-East, Ben Kalu (APC, Abia) and North-West are Sada Soli (APC, Katsina), Abubakar Makki (APC, Jigawa), Tajudeen Abbas (APC, Kaduna) and Aminu Jaji (APC, Zamfara).

APC Senator Ajibola’s announcement rests on existing parliamentary rules and convention that the political party with the most legislators is expected to form the majority caucus and produce the presiding officers.

Regardless of the outcome of the supplementary polls conducted Saturday, to fill the remaining eleven senatorial seats, the APC has 50 out of the current 98 members of the Senate. It is distantly followed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 29 seats, then the Labour Party (LP) with six, the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) with two; Social Democratic Party (SDP) also with two; the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Young Peoples Party (YPP) with one seat each.

The APC also leads in the House of Representatives. It won 162 seats out of the 360 seats, while the PDP won 102 seats.

The LP and NNPP won 34 and 18 seats, respectively, while APGA won four seats.

The SDP and African Democratic Congress (ADC) won two seats each, while the YPP won one seat.

The APC’s decision to determine the zoning formula for choosing NASS leadership got a big boost last week when an inter-party 283–member alliance in the House agreed to respect the majority decision of the APC to choose the Speaker and deputy Speaker.

Source: Thewill.com