Crisis Over National Assembly Leadership Deepens

Leadership (Abuja)

Uchenna Awom, Adesuwa Tsan, Stanley Nkwocha, Catherine Agbo And Laolu Ladipo

2 June 2011

Abuja/Lagos — A new twist was yesterday added to the crisis rocking the incoming National Assembly over its choice of leaders of both chambers as the horse-trading reached its peak yesterday.

At the last sitting of both chambers on Thursday, the former governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje alleged that he had been excluded and dramatically schemed out of the race for the Senate presidency.

Goje’s fears were heightened by strong indications that the immediate past Senate president, David Mark, appeared to have clinched the Senate presidency for a second term.

The Patriotic League, a group within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has asked Senator Mark to proceed with his job as the Senate’s helmsman, saying Goje’s candidacy for the top job was too strange for them to understand.

The development came just as ranking members of the House of Representatives have also adopted Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as speaker while the PDP caucus in the South-West is asking Hon. Muraina Ajibola to step down for Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola.

Goje said he would no longer contest the Senate presidency. This he attributed to the PDP’s zoning formula which allotted the slot to the North-Central.

The PDP’s zoning formula had retained the Senate presidency in the North-Central, while the House Speaker was zoned to the South-West. The zoning has, however, created confusion amongst federal legislators, especially in the House of Representatives, with the new members-elect threatening to dump the arrangement. Goje, from the North-East, had been touted to be a frontrunner for the seat.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, yesterday, Goje said his decision had become pertinent as, aside the zoning factor, it was impossible for him to achieve this goal more so that the recently amended standing order of the Senate rule barred him further from contesting since he was a first-term senator.

Goje’s withdrawal seems to have cleared the coast for Senator David Mark to clinch the seat unopposed. Before now, Goje had been thought to be a formidable opponent for Mark who is returning to the Senate for a record fourth term. The seventh Assembly of the legislative arm is expected to elect its leaders on Monday, June 6, when the Assembly is inaugurated.

Meanwhile, the South-West caucus, which the PDP zoned the slot to, is currently confused as the favoured candidate, Hon Muraina Ajibola, has been directed to step down for Mulikat Adeola, who is the chosen candidate of the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.

A source who spoke on condition of anonymity told LEADERSHIP that about 200 members, including ranking members of the ACN, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) resolved to back Tambuwal as speaker, and current chief whip Emeka Ihedioha as his deputy because of their experience.

He said: “Ranking members adopted Tambuwal because he is competent, experienced and has the capacity to take the House where it should be.

“A lawyer and member of the Body of Benchers, Tambuwal has what it takes to hold a gathering of people of diverse professions and backgrounds to the advantage of the green chamber.”

The opposition members-elect, who endorsed Tambuwal in a meeting held in Abuja yesterday, said they convened as part of the first concrete steps aimed at taking a firm stand on their choice when they are inaugurated on Monday.

Our source added that the pro-Tambuwal group had been having previous meetings but at informal levels, but took a stand yesterday after it became apparent that the PDP was adamant on the zoning of the seat to South-West.

The lawmaker, a member of the ACN, in a phone chat said the meeting which started on Wednesday night stretched to the early hours of Thursday.

He said, “We (all ACN members-elect) went to the meeting to discuss with members from other parties on the need to reject imposition of candidates in whatever guise on the House by the PDP.”

He added that, “We have resolved to jettison this issue of zoning for competence and experience. Zoning by its concept means imposition and we don’t want imposition. We (House members) should be allowed to elect our leaders without interference and that is what we want to do with our members”.

Meanwhile, the South-West caucus has asked Muraina to step down and support the only female aspirant to the speakership, Akande-Adeola. LEADERSHIP learnt that the turn of events was linked to the desire of the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, to have a woman fill the slot.

Hon Akande-Adeola is a second-term legislator and hails from Oyo State.

Meanwhile, members of the House Project, a group of lawmakers clamouring for the election of Rep Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (PDP, Sokoto) as the next speaker of the House of Representatives, have accused the PDP and some unnamed officials of the presidency of intimidating and financially inducing members-elect in a bid to influence their votes on Monday when the seventh National Assembly will be inaugurated.

In a briefing yesterday at the National Assembly, the minority whip, Hon Kawu Abdurahman Sumaila, said they were aware that the presidency has arranged for the incoming members to be accommodated in a five- star hotel in Abuja as part of a “desperate” move to get easy access to them and induce them.

He also noted that taking the position of speaker and deputy-speaker to any particular geo-political zone was unjust, while recalling that, in 1979, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke was speaker and Chief Alex Ekwueme was the vice president even though they both hailed from Anambra State.

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