With less than two months to the proclamation of the 10th National Assembly by the President elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, all appears not to be well within the ranks of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Those in the know in separate chats with Saturday Telegraph maintain that the leadership of the party is increasingly finding it difficult to arrive at a consensus with regards to how to allot the leadership slots to all the six zones of the country. According to sources, the situation has caused some form of panic within the ranks of the APC prompting many stakeholders to fear a repeat of the 2015 leadership election scenario should the party fail to put its house in order.

The scenario under reference was the rebellion of a group of elected senators led by a former President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, who teamed up with some elected members of the upper chambers on the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to disobey the party (APC) who rooted for the emergence of incumbent holder, Senator Ahmed Lawan. In the end, Saraki emerged and the PDP produced Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy after an alliance was forged between some members of the APC while the PDP produced the bulk of their membership to back the former Kwara State governor’s bid.

“As we speak today the leadership of the APC is in a quandary over how to share the various offices at the National Assembly. Though the party has a formula for this, the snag is that many members-elect seem not to be in tune with the party,” a source within the party said. He (the source) further added that some outside forces who are leading gladiators of the party from the various zones are also working to ensure that they corner the leadership of the two chambers in the ensuing crisis within the party. “These leaders are the ones who have made it difficult for the party to have arrived at a consensus on this issue. Many of them want the juicy slots zoned to them because of the benefits that they stand to gain from it and this is not helping the party,” the source said. He added that the seeming recalcitrant disposition of the leaders is causing panic with many feeling the party might not go into the proclamation as a united entity, prompting a situation whereby the opposition who has sizeable numbers might cash in on the situation to determine the leaders of the two chambers.

A ranking Reps member from Osun State told our correspondent that his party, the PDP, as a caucus “would only be doing what is right for the country at the Assembly,” saying it is not the business of his party to help the APC design and implement its zoning formula. “We are going into the House as a caucus, we are also in talks with members-elect from other minority parties to come on board and join us to enthrone a vibrant leadership that would help check the executive in the House. Many of them are coming on board and we are happy,” the Reps member said. Meanwhile, as if to confirm the division, jostling and fears that the opposition may have something up their sleeve, the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, has said that the leadership of the National Assembly would need to work with the opposition lawmakers to succeed.

Lawan said this while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after paying Eid-el- Fitr homage on President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday at the Presidential Villa. Asked whether he was worried that the opposition could take over the Assembly’s leadership, given the configuration, Lawan said “I don’t think opposition parties are planning to usurp because it is presumptuous that the APC will not be a united party, APC is a united party and the opposition party will simply work with the APC majority for us to have stability, because there is no way an opposition will decide who should be the Senate President who should be the Speaker. It is our party and other leaders that will decide which zone or whoever, and the rest of us in the party will key-in and of course the opposition would have no option but to support. “I don’t see anything wrong in the opposition talking to us, or we’re talking to the opposition to ensure that we’re on the same page, because we need opposition to ensure that we get most of our constitutional amendment passed because we can’t have the 73 in the Senate. So you need 73 Senators at least for you to have any constitutional amendment.

So you would need opposition. That’s why it is very critical, it is very essential that you work with opposition right from the beginning. ‘Don’t ever think the opposition should be pushed away. I don’t believe in that, I only believe in the bipartisan chamber because it is more productive. It is more stable, it’s calm, and it gives you the kind of outcome that you will never get with a very rancorous chamber.”

(Saturday Telegraph)