NASS leadership: South-West, North-Central in epic battle

The battle for who gets what, when and how in the leadership of the Ninth Assembly gets very interesting and unnerving by the day. While the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, at a dinner with its elected federal lawmakers, finally unveiled its plan for the positions of speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives as it zoned the two offices to the South-West and North-Central geopolitical zones, respectively.

Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, went further to announce the House Leader, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila as its anointed choice for the position of Speaker.

Before Tuesday dinner, the party leadership and the Presidency had taken a similar position on the exalted office of Senate President by zoning it to the North-East and even took a position on the exalted office of Senate President by zoning it to the North-East, going further to endorse an individual in the person of the incumbent Senate Majority Leader, Ahmad Lawan, to the consternation of the likes of Senators Ali Ndume and Danjuma Goje, who had signified interest in the same position.

Ahead of the Tuesday session with the lawmakers with President Muhammadu Buhari and his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, in attendance, the national publicity secretary of the party, Mallam Lanre Isa-Onilu, had, last Sunday, dropped a hint of resolution of the power tussle over the speakership of the Ninth Assembly in favour of the South-West.

He said: “Our party will soon release the zoning arrangements for the principal positions of the incoming Ninth National Assembly. The party will also make its position clear in the coming days on the principal positions in the House of Representatives.”

But less than twenty-four hours after the formal announcement of the incumbent House Leader as the preferred choice, indications emerged that the position taken by the Comrade Oshiomhole-led APC National Working Committee (NWC) was not acceptable to the  aspirants to the office from North-Central zone and that they are not willing to let go of their ambition.

One of the aspirants from the zone, John Dyegh, on Wednesday, formally announced his intention to vie for the office.

Honourable Victor Afam Ogene, former deputy chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Publicity and spokesperson, Mohammed Bago Campaign Team, spoke in similar vein, as he accused Comrade Oshiomhole of trying to foist a sinister agenda on the party. He noted that no other statutory organ of the APC was privy to the zoning arrangements being bandied around by Comrade Oshiomhole.

He said: “In fact, we suspect that they tried to ambush Mr President into the anointing of a candidate. The further question to ask would probably be ‘at what meeting did the national caucus decide on this adoption, on the zoning first, not to talk of the micro-zoning?’

“The party has different strata; the party is not just the National Working Committee (NWC). There is a national caucus which comprises Mr President, the vice president, Professor  Yemi Osinbajo; the APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; APC governors, Board of  Trustees (BoT) members and some other party stalwarts.

“To our knowledge, no such meeting has ever been called to discuss the issue of zoning, not to talk of micro zoning. So, we would be interested to know who moved the motion for zoning, who seconded it, who moved a follow up motion for micro zoning and who seconded it; who voted for and who voted against.”

Sunday Tribune findings revealed that the South-West and the North-Central geopolitical zones are the two dominant zones in the race for the position.

Besides Gbajabiamila, who represents Surulere II Federal Constituency of Lagos State, another contender from the zone is Honourable Segun Odebunmi, representing Surulere/Ogo Oluwa Federal Constituency of Oyo State.

Sunday Tribune findings revealed that the South-West and the North-Central geopolitical zones are the two dominant zones in the race for the position.

The battle for leadership of the Green Chamber has since revived the leadership tussle and war of attrition between South-West chieftains of the APC: A set of politicians led by former Lagos State governor and leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the young Turks in the zone. Those in the latter camp are the outgoing Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun; incumbent governors of Ekiti and Ondo states, Kayode Fayemi and Rotimi Akeredolu respectively. Also in this group is a former national legal adviser of the party, Muiz Banire, who, incidentally, is from Lagos State.

Those in this camp have strongly expressed reservations over Senator Tinubu’s dominance in the zone and his predilection towards deciding who gets whatever is coming to the zone from Abuja.

There is unconfirmed report that the young Turks are goading Honourable Odebunmi not to withdraw from the race for his main rival in the South-West, Honourable Gbajabiamila, already marked as Tinubu’s anointed choice.

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Who gets what in the North-Central?

For the North-Central, there are three main contenders: Mohammed Bago from Niger State, Idris Wase from Plateau State and John Dyegh from Benue State.

The zone has squealed against an alleged plot to marginalise it in the unfolding power sharing arrangements in the party. It has continued to argue that having taken the slot of the vice president, occupied by the person of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the South-West should let go of its aspiration to produce the Speaker, House of Representatives.

At a recent media briefing in Abuja, the leader of the North-Central Elders’ Forum, Alhaji Muhammadu Ari Gwaska, declared that the North-Central should be allowed to produce the speaker for the Green Chamber, as he noted that the zone came second behind the North-West in the volume of votes delivered to the APC presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, in the February 23 election.

“The North-Central is too strategic to be relegated in the sharing of power in Nigeria. Since the adoption of the presidential system of government in Nigeria, from the Second Republic to date, the zone has continued to play a strategic role in representative government and bridge building.

“As the party is caught in the euphoria of its victory at the recent poll, there is need for caution. The national leadership of the party must ensure that it does not inflict damage on itself, which consequences can better be imagined, in the course of selection and election of principal officers of the Ninth House of Representatives.

“We make bold to state here that we speak in our capacity, over the years, as eyewitnesses, active participants and elders in the political development of Nigeria and the dynamics of regional politics as they affect the destiny of Nigeria as a viable political entity.

“We can, therefore, testify to a realistic appreciation of what a mismanagement of the appropriation of the spoils of office can cause a party and even government in the running of the affairs of the country.

“It is from the benefit of this hindsight that we appeal, with due respect, to the conscience of Mr. President and the national leadership of the party – the All Progressives Congress –  to, as a matter of deliberate policy, zone the speakership of the Ninth National Assembly to the North-Central geopolitical zone for the purpose of fairness, equity, justice, unity and loyalty as necessary ingredients in forming a government that will effectively drive the agenda of the party and the government of President Buhari in the next level.

“The party should rest assured of loyal, competent and credible high ranking members of the House of Representatives from the zone with the capacity for building bridges across the country for the good of the party, government and Nigeria.”

In a veiled allusion to the rebellion which produced the outgoing Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, the North-Central leaders played the Pontius Pilate, as they pleaded not to be punished for what happened in 2015.

“Lest we forget, in the aftermath of the 2015 general election, the zone was ignored in the appropriation of the spoils of office when the Senate presidency was zoned to the North-East and the speakership zoned to the South-West, in addition to the position of vice president which the zone (South-West) occupies.

“This resulted in a revolt! The ensuing rebellion upset the apple cart by producing the current Senate president from the North-Central with the North-East occupying the speakership.

“This revolt created disharmony and stagnation in governance and so much was lost in terms of expected national progress. It should be noted that the rebellion that produced the current Senate president against the wishes of the party leadership in 2015 was not an arrangement with the backing of stakeholders from the North-Central geopolitical zone. It was never in the tradition of this zone, as a bridge, to constitute a cog in the wheel of national progress.

“The zone has expressed its anger and disdain for the actions of the leaders of the rebellion by rejecting them in the 2019 National Assembly election as demonstrated by the popular will of the people of Kwara State.”

A party source told Sunday Tribune that governors of the five states under the control of the APC in North-Central states have since reached out to their counterparts in the North-West and North-East and are even banking on a sizeable support from aggrieved South-West governors. The party source further claimed that the battle was a fait accompli for any of the candidates anointed by the North-Central governors.

He said: “The likes of Yahaya Bello are working with the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, to deliver for the North-Central. You know the Kaduna governor has the ears of some of his colleagues in South-West who are of the opinion that Bola Tinubu believes that the South-West starts and ends in Lagos.”

 

Who gets the endorsement?

Further checks revealed that in the North-Central, it is a two-horse race between Wase and Bago from Plateau and Niger states respectively. Wase, Chairman, House Committee on Federal Character, emerged as deputy leader of the House last October, following the death of Honourable Umar Buba Jibrin. He represents Wase Federal Constituency of Plateau State and he is believed to be a good team player and can naturally fit in the position to be vacated by his North-East neighbour, Yakubu Dogara.

Born in Bashar Chiefdom in Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State of Nigeria on June 1, 1964, the Civil Engineering graduate of Kaduna State Polytechnic started his working career as a civil servant in Bauchi State in 1987 and rose through the ranks to become acting director of physical planning in the state college of education at Gindiri.

Wase was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 2007 and has engaged in many legislative and social interventions through the sponsorship of bills, motions and social initiatives to better the lives of his constituents. Besides the Federal Character Commission Committee, he has served in various other committees such as Environment, Emergency and Disaster, Public Account, Area Council, Housing and Habitat, Capital Market, Poverty Alleviation, Petroleum (Upstream), Justice, Public Petitions and Labour, Youth and Employment.

A party source, however, told Sunday Tribune that the aspirant might emerge as deputy speaker to Honourable Gbajabiamila, as part of the deal to placate the North-Central zone, perceived to have been instigated to draw battle line against Gbajabiamila by certain governors in the North-East and North-West zones.

His counterpart, Bago, Chairman, Committee on Maritime Safety and Institution, represents Chanchaga Federal Constituency of Niger State. He has been in the Assembly since 2011, when he won on the ticket of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). He is equally credited with enjoying a warm relationship with his colleagues across party divide.

The lawmaker from Niger State was reported to have been averse to a recent comment attributed to his party’s (APC) national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, that the ruling party would not need opposition parties to pursue its legislative agenda. In Bago’s view, “to make the legislature work, there must be harmony. There is no partisan line within the parliament, but only outside. The laws don’t have party colours. Nigeria does not have party colours. It (party colouration) is only for election.”

Bago, at a recent interactive session with journalists, said he was determined to ensure the independence of the legislature from what he called the vice-grip of the executive, which he noted was as a result of long years of military dictatorship.

“We have seen that the legislature in Nigeria is an appendage of the executive. That is why the executive even delves into what happens in the legislature, which is wrong. The difference between any democracy and authoritarian regime is that you have the judiciary and the legislature. The absence of the legislature is what makes a government democratic or not.”