Following his inauguration as president on May 29, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is expected to meet with senators-to-be to discuss the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) reportedly supported Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin for the positions of Senate President and Deputy President, respectively.
As for the 10th House of Representatives’ Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions, the ruling party supported Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu, respectively.
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However, Abbas (APC, Kaduna) and Jibrin (APC, Kano) are both from the Northwest. As a result, the North-central zone and a few senators-elect rejected the endorsement.
ThisDay reports that certain senators-elect have counseled Tinubu to resolve the presiding office dispute by allowing the North-west to give up one of its presiding offices to the North-central.
The incoming parliamentarians argued that it would go against the spirit of equity to let one zone to hold two presiding office positions while the other has none.
According to one of the senators-elect, “We intend to meet Tinubu as President, once he is sworn in between Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss with him this time as the President and Commander-in-Chief.
“We want to lay bare before him the implication of starting off with squabbles and agitation from a zone that feels neglected and cheated.
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“We will reason with him on why a zone, the North-west will occupy two offices of presiding officers and another zone, the North-central will have none.
“This is the major position of our meeting on Thursday. To some of us, this is just to lay a landmine of crisis for him as the President.
“He is the President, and he should not start off with agitation and crisis or allow the National Assembly to slip out of his control. If he allows himself to be deceived, then it means that he will inherit the crisis.”
Most of the senators-elect from the North Central region said that it is anticipated that the North West will be permitted to select both the deputy Senate president and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
According to the senator-elect, “Senator Jubrin Barau from Kano State and Hon Abbas Tajudeen from Kaduna have been micro-zoned for the offices, without considering the North-central that also contributed substantially to the victory of the APC. For equity, we expect that one of the presiding offices should go to the North-central.”
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When asked about the continued agitation of the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon Aliyu Betara, he said, “From what we gathered, the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, and the Governor Babagana Zulum are not disposed to him becoming the Speaker because of his alleged governorship ambition.
“They seem to be against his cult followership as Muhammadu Buhari. If he becomes the Speaker, then it will be difficult to control him when the tenure of Zulum is over.”
He said that they decided to wait till the swearing-in of Tinubu as President to see his body language in the first appointments that he would make.
He said: “By the time he appoints the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and his Chief of Staff, we can see the direction of his government. For now, we will only be guessing what he will do.”
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