Weeks after intensive campaigns, strong indications have emerged that aspirants for the position of the President of the Senate from North West, North West and North Central might have shelved their ambitions.

With their purported withdrawal, the battle has now shifted to South East, where Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, holds sway as frontrunner, and South South, where former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, is the main challenger.

The Northern candidates, instead, have renewed their face-off on who becomes the Deputy President of the Senate when the National Assembly is inaugurated in June.

In the North Central, only one aspirant from Niger State, Sani Musa, indicated interest. The North West has the highest number of aspirants, with Barau Jibrin as the leading challenger. Former Leader of the Senate, Mohammed Ali Ndume from Borno State is leading the pact from North East.

The current President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, is believed to be plotting to contest for a second term.

A senator, who revealed the latest development to Saturday Sun, said leaders from the North and stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), prevailed on the aspirants to allow a Christian from the South to get the position in order to create a religious balancing.

He said with the North West likely to get the Speakership, North Central appears set to produce the next Deputy President of the Senate for the first time since President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, when Ibrahim Mantu from Plateau State held sway.

The lawmaker revealed that negotiations are underway by the key aspirants from the North to lobby for the chairmanship of influential committees and other sensitive positions.

In the Senate, some of the committees considered to be ‘juicy’ are Appropriation, Services, Petroleum (Downstream, Upstream and Gas), Works, Finance, Banking, Customs, Federal Character, among others.

The appointments of senators as chairmen of the aforementioned committees, are the special rights of the President of the Senate.

“In principle, Northern aspirants for the position of the President of the Senate, have jettisoned their ambitions. They’ve agreed with the argument that Christians from the South should be elected. North West and North Central will have to battle to produce the Deputy President of the Senate.

“I suspect that the North Central may get it, with the hope that North West will get the Speakership. North East has been settled already with the emergence of Kashim Shettima as Vice President-elect.

“We know that South West, too, isn’t in the contest. The battle is between South-East and South-South. That’s now left for the party leadership to decide. But the North is out and I can reliably inform you about this development.

“If you’ve noticed, the zeal has reduced. The earlier threat to gang up against the South is gone. There are things people should worry about, and that’s the plan to impose newcomers as Presiding Officers on the upper legislative chamber,” the senator noted.

Meanwhile, barring any last minute change, a meeting between the leadership of APC, President Muhammadu Buhari, president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice president-elect and senators-elect on the platform of the ruling party, is expected to hold after the Sallah break.

A senator-elect familiar with the development, told Saturday Sun that unless there is a special intervention, an adopted candidate for the position of the President of the Senate and the Deputy President of the Senate will be announced.

He revealed that the move is to prevent a repeat of Bukola Saraki’s emergence in 2015. The returning lawmaker said Buhari has been briefed, but an expanded meeting is expected to hold when Tinubu and the national chairman of APC, Abdullahi Adamu return to the country before the end of the month.

“There are many options that are being considered. They want to see if they can micro-zone the positions and directly instruct APC senators-elect to work for the people. Once that’s done, any plan to oppose it may not work.

“The only problem with that option is that, the opposition has a commanding number of 50 senators-elect. If the party zeroes in on a particular candidate, the opposition might move against such a person. It will be a dangerous game to play.

“Meetings are on-going and they’re considering all the options. But what I can assure you is that, a repeat of Saraki’s emergence may likely not happen with Tinubu as President of Nigeria,” he added. (Saturday Sun)

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