By Henry Umoru & Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA — THE criteria recently announced by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on how the Senate President in the 8th Senate will emerge is generating ripples among senators.
ABUJA — THE criteria recently announced by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on how the Senate President in the 8th Senate will emerge is generating ripples among senators.
Meanwhile, it was learnt last night that the meeting
between the APC leadership and senators-elect where a consensus on the issue of
the Senate President was to be resolved may have been shifted.
Senator Bokola Saraki and Ahmad Lawan
One of the two camps was said to have pressed for the
shift because of the insufficiency of the support it was expecting to show to
the party leadership.
The APC NWC, at its meeting with President Muhammadu
Buhari, Tuesday night, had listed certain criteria which the next Senate
president must possess.
Some of the criteria stipulated that the party’s
candidate for the post must come from the geopolitical zone with the second
highest number of votes after the North-West during the Presidential election
held on March 28.
It also said that the next Senate president must not
have any corruption charges hanging on his or her neck and should be one of the
most ranking senators in the current Fourth Republic.
A senator privy to the meeting said the leadership of
the party was mandated to, within three days, present the most eligible
aspirant as consensus candidate for the post based on the listed criteria
during inauguration next week.
The two leading contestants are Senators Bukola Saraki
(Kwara Central) and Ahmad Lawan ( Yobe North ).
Two groups, “Like Minds Senators” and the “Senate
Unity Forum” who were supporting the candidature of Saraki and Lawan
respectively, had claimed to have secured the endorsement of enough numbers of
senators to win the race.
While the Saraki camp compiled a list containing the
names of 34 APC senators- elect, the Lawan loyalists claimed that 40 APC
senators-elect had endorsed the Yobe senator as their consensus candidate.
Senators-elect express fears
The development is generating serious confusion
because there are just 59 APC senators-elect expected to be inaugurated in the
8th Senate following the death of Ahmed Zannah (Borno North) last month.
Some of the Senators-elect who commented on the
matter, expressed fears that the decision of the APC to use criteria,
considered strange to the rules of the Senate and constitution of the country,
could be counter-productive.
The party had planned to announce its preferred
candidate between Lawan and Saraki during a meeting with the senators-elect
today, in Abuja.
But those who reacted to the issue urged the
leadership of the party to allow the most popular aspirant to emerge through a
due process that would be free, fair, credible and generally acceptable to all
concerned.
Melaye cautions NWC
In his reaction, Coordinator of the Like Minds Senators-elect,
Dino Melaye, cautioned the NWC against too much interference in the affairs of
the Senate because the upper legislative chamber is guided by rules.
Melaye said: “The NWC is there to offer advice and not
to determine those who will contest leadership positions on the floor of the
Senate. The constitution of Nigeria and the rules of the Senate are clear on
how a Senate president could emerge.”
Further investigations revealed that the imposition of
a consensus candidate on the APC senators-elect might rub the party of the
position because the opposition lawmakers might take advantage of the division
to present a candidate.
No candidate for Senate President, Deputy — PDP
Meanwhile, the national leadership of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, said yesterday that it has no candidate for the offices
of the Senate President and Deputy Senate President.
The PDP, however, denied the allegation that as a
party, it was plotting to change norms at the National Assembly where the party
with the majority of elected senators or members of the House of
Representatives presents the leadership at the National Assembly.
Speaking with journalists, yesterday, PDP National
Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, who noted that the party, which has now
become the new opposition in the National Assembly, was not contemplating
imposing the leadership for the Senate, however, denied that it was plotting to
present the present President of the Senate, Senator David Mark as a candidate
for the Presidency.
Metuh, who stressed that it was an established norm
that the party with the majority presents leadership at the National Assembly,
said: “That was not part of the PDP retreat for members of the National
Assembly in Port Harcourt. PDP has no such plot to upstage the All Progressives
Congress (APC) in presenting leadership at the National Assembly, contrary to
the known norms.
“The truth is that it was not discussed at all at the
Port Harcourt retreat. The truth is that we have no candidate for Senate
President or Deputy Senate President. The truth is that we are ready to present
a credible opposition to the All Progressives Congress as the ruling party. We
wish President Muhammadu Buhari success and hope he would be able to turn
around the economy.”
According to the PDP spokesperson, the Port Harcourt
retreat only commended Senators David Mark and Ike Ekweremadu for stabilizing
democracy and National Assembly, adding: “So, it is not true that PDP is
plotting to present a candidate for the Senate President and Deputy Senate
President.”
PDP not plotting to present Mark—Senators
Also ahead of Tuesday’s inauguration of the 8th
Senate, some PDP Senators from the South-West, South-South and South-East geo
political zones of the country have denied the report that the PDP was plotting
to present the incumbent Senate president, David Mark as a candidate for the
Senate President.
In their various comments, former chairman of the PDP
in Delta State and the Senator-elect for Delta North, Peter Nwaoboshi; PDP
Senator-elect for Imo State, Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu and Senator Duro Faseyi
from Ekiti State, separately denied that the PDP took a decision in Port
Harcourt to present David Mark as the Senate president candidate.
For Peter Nwaoboshi: “There was no truth in the report
that PDP has decided to field David Mark as Senate president. We know the
norms, which is that the party with the majority in both the Senate and House
of Representatives should present the leadership in the National Assembly.
“So, as far as we in the PDP are concerned, the retreat
in Port Harcourt is meant to re strategise and present our party as a credible
opposition political party.”
Senator–elect Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu said, “We know
the norms and this is that the party with the highest number of senators should
present both senate president and deputy senate present. It is not true that
the Port Harcourt retreat was aimed at presenting David Mark as a PDP consensus
senate president candidate.”
For the returning Senator, Duro Fayesi from Ekiti
state, the retreat was basically designed to among others help to re strategise
and position PDP as the main opposition party, adding that there was no truth
in the report that PDP was plotting to present a candidate for the office of
the senate president.
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