As the power game continues in the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the positions of presiding officers of the National Assembly, with its attendant backstabs and horse-trading, Deputy Group Politics Editor, TAIWO AMODU, examines the forces at play in the House of Representatives ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the National Assembly.
For the ordinary faithful of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the current situation at Buhari House, the party’s national secretariat, in the last week has been unnerving. Rather than being filled with anxiety as the inauguration of the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, draws near, what is in the air at the party’s national secretariat is trepidation as its members are at dagger’s drawn over the fact that power blocs are smarting for a a few days to May 29 over who gets what and how at the National Assembly.
Aggrieved aspirants for the positions of presiding officers of both chambers of the parliament have been visiting the national secretariat in Abuja to submit formal petitions to the APC National Working Committee (NWC) led by Senator AbdullahiAdamu, in protest against the zoning arrangement and consensus deal sealed by the national caucus of the party and ratified by the NWC.
The lawmaker representing Biu/Bayo/Shani Federal Constituency of Borno State and the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, HonourableMuktarAliyuBetara, summed up the discontentment of his colleagues at the session with Senator Adamu and other national officers of the party. He accused the outgoing Speaker, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, of allegedly being the mastermind of the deal which threw up HonourableTajudeen Abbas representing Zaria Federal Constituency of Kaduna State (North-West) and Benjamin Kalu, Bende Federal Constituency, Abia State (South-East) as favoured candidates for leadership of the tenth House of Representatives.
Betara recalled the contributions made by him and another aspirant, the sitting Deputy Speaker, IdrisWase, to withdraw from the race for Speaker of the ninth National Assembly in deference to the president-elect, Senator Tinubu.
He also faulted the hurried pronouncement on the zoning formula without adequate consultations with the aspirants, some of whom have united to form the G-6.
He said: “We are not against our leaders, but if they had asked us to sit down and said sit among yourselves and pick somebody you think you can work with, it is easy, but the person, the speaker is trying to even pick, there are some of our colleagues that don’t know him. That’s the truth. I am not lying. Today, the party said we zoned to North-West; we have to sit and think because now the party is zoning the Deputy Senate President and the Speaker to the same zone. We have been in this Assembly; there has never been a time that two presiding officers’ positions are zoned to one area. It has never happened.
“And in our discussion here, on our inauguration day, it’s what happened in the Senate that will determine what is going to happen in the House. So, we need to sit down and look at it. We might produce the Senate President from a different zone. It happened in 2015. So, as a party, we are pleading; we need to sit again with all of us and do more consultations,” Betara had pleaded.
Adamu’s Game of Politics
Checks revealed that at a meeting between the coalition of aggrieved aspirants, tagged the G-6, the chairman of the APC tried to insulate himself as he appealed fervently to the team which included Wase, Betara, SaniJaji, Yusuf Gadyi, Sada Soli and Miriam Onuoha to be patient and await his leadership intervention after the return of Tinubu.
A statement issued by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka announcing the ratification of the national caucus zoning formula would later reveal that the party’s national leadership is not innocent in the whole drama. It is in fact the chief collaborator.
The statement read in part: “The NWC noted with respect the outcome of the meetings held between the president-elect and the leadership of the NWC. The NWC called for further and better consultation with necessary stakeholders in order to assure the support of the aspirants to the National Assembly leadership positions and members of the party nationwide.”
North-Central governors kick
Governors from the North-Central zone are in league with aspirants from the zone as they have rejected the zoning template. At a meeting held on Monday night at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, the governors jointly faulted the APC zoning formula which gave two positions of presiding officers, Deputy Senate President, to BarauJibrin from Kano North (North-West) and Speaker to Abbas, Zaria Federal Constituency, Kaduna State (also from North-West), while the North-Central zone was denied a slot in the two chambers of National Assembly.
While it appealed to aspirants from the region to be patient, the “meeting resolved and agreed to fully utilise all necessary dialogue and consultations to resolving the NASS leadership issue, they all agreed to reach out to all major stakeholders for an amicable and acceptable zoning framework that will be all-inclusive.”
In attendance were AbubakarSani Bello, Simon Lalong, AbdulrahmanAbdulrazak and AbdullahiSule, governors of Niger, Plateau, Kwara, and Nasarawa states respectively.
Others were Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello and the governor-elect for Benue State, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia.
Also present were aspirants from the region for the position of Senate President, Senator Sani Musa; Wase, and Gagdi, both from Plateau State.
Betara, Wase, others adamant
Checks revealed that after the meeting with the APC NWC became public knowledge, the duo of Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu tried to reach out to the G-6. According to a source, the leader of the emissary promised that the G-6 would be offered the seat of Deputy Speaker, but with a proviso that their candidate must come from the same South-East as Benjamin Kalu that would be traded off in the horse-trading deal.
“It was an offer that was rejected by the G-6. They were told in clear terms that they have tabled their demands before the national leadership of the party and there is no going back.
“A consensus candidate among the G-6 will be announced before May 29. All the other aspirants are likely to settle for Betara,” the source added.
A Deputy Speaker to pair with a consensus candidate of the G-6 may likely emerge from the opposition parties as the investigation revealed that the coalition has opened the discussion with certain Peoples Democratic Party governors from the South-South zone to produce a consensus candidate from the ranking House of Representatives members from the zone.
On why Betara could be the preferred choice, the source noted that the lawmaker representing Biu/Bayo/Shani Federal Constituency of Borno State has leveraged his office as Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, to establish a warm relationship with lawmakers across the political parties divides.
Aside making a case for annual budgets for committees of the Green Chamber, checks revealed that the Appropriation Committee under Betara is a team of about 138 lawmakers to take care of interests of power tendencies within the House
“That’s why Betara can say that he felt betrayed allegedly by Gbajabiamila; that having used his good offices to stabilise the House for him, the Speaker is allegedly working against his interest and others in the G-6 who were there for him and his leadership,” a source close to the G-6 told Sunday Tribune.
A breakdown of the lawmakers in the 10th National Assembly revealed that the ruling party lacks the comfortable majority to push through the TajudeenAbass – Benjamin Kalu consensus deal.
While the APC has 59 of its members (among whom are those sympathetic to the G-6 cause), the PDP has 36 lawmakers while other opposition parties have 14 members.
Confirming the imminent showdown against the ruling party, some of the opposition lawmakers had since drummed support for Betara.
The new members-elect under the aegis of New Vision, were drawn from the APC, New Nigeria Peoples Party, PDP, Labour Party, and other political parties.
The lawmakers, during a meeting with new members-elect from the South-South penultimate Friday in Abuja, noted that the Borno-born lawmaker is the most qualified among the contenders for the Speakership position.
Spokesperson of the New Vision group and member-elect representing Obudu/Obanliku/Bekwara federal constituency, Cross River, Peter Akpanke, said members of the group have been moving across the country to garner support for Betara.
He revealed that his group had met virtually all the aspirants for the Speakership position and submitted that only Betara has shown a sincere commitment to work with the executive arm in solving the myriad of challenges bedeviling the country.
He said: “We have had an interface with all the people running for the speakership in the 10th assembly. We met with all of them one-on-one but we chose Betara because when we met him, he spoke the minds of the members and how the 10th assembly is going to be independent.
“He also spoke on how projects are going to get to the federal constituencies, how budgets are going to be executed, and how he will collaborate with the executive to make sure that projects are funded, issues of insecurity and employment are tackled, all for the betterment of Nigerians.
“So the new vision group decided to stand behind him. We’ve been going around the geopolitical zones to interface and lobby members-elect to support this cause. So in the meeting with our colleagues from South-South, all of us resolved that no matter the pressure, we should support Betara based on his antecedents.
“He has been Chairman of the Army committee and we saw how the committee rose from Grade C to get Grade A. He is currently the House Committee Chairman on Appropriation and since then, there has been nothing like budget padding.
Insisting that the lawmakers would reject imposition, Akpanke said the National Assembly is an independent arm and members must be allowed to choose their leaders.
He maintained that the zoning arrangements of the APC would not be binding on the lawmakers.
North-East: Odd against Betara?
Forces against the G-6 are bemused that the coalition, squealing against the zoning template, which they noted gave the North-West more than its fair share in the distribution of positions indifferent to an arrangement that could make another zone, the North-East wields awesome power in a Tinubu presidency: the choice of Betara as Speaker as he shares same State: Borno from North-East with the vice president-elect, Senator KashimShettima.
Loyalists of the aspirant would however describe the narrative as not holding water.
One of them who spoke with Saturday Tribune in confidence recalled that in the Second Republic, Anambra State produced the vice-president and Speaker, House of Representatives in persons of Dr Alex Ekwueme and Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke.
“We are waiting for them. We know they will bandy such a puerile argument that isn’t plausible. They forget that in the present administration, the vice-president, YemiOsinbajo, and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, are both from Lagos State. In fact, they are from the same Surulere Federal Constituency! It was when Osinbajo wanted to seek the presidential ticket that he moved to Ogun State. So, what is wrong if Betara shares the same state and zone with the incoming vice-president?” the source queried.
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