ABUJA / LAGOS, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The All Progressives Congress [APC] may have emerged tops in the just concluded general elections, but it is certainly not yet uhuru for the party, as it looks locked in the process of adopting the right formula for zoning key federal legislative and executive positions.
With the May 29 handover still about five weeks shy, there are already indications that the party is having some difficulty deciding who gets what as far as the leadership of the National Assembly and executive positions are concerned.
Often times, the structure of the APC has come under scrutiny with critics of the party insisting that it not only lacks internal democracy, but functions according to the body language of one man, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, its National Leader.
Little wonder, there had been insinuations that President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, will find it tough coping with the men who re-branded and propelled him to power.
Following the elections, permutations began to emerge as to how the party intends to go about sharing positions- the signs of what might be in the offing for the party began to evolve.
At the weekend, the media was awash with reports suggesting that the APC national leadership and national caucus members had agreed on a document on allocation of executive positions and how principal officers of the National Assembly from across the six geopolitical zones would emerge.
It was reported that the National Working Committee of the party after a three-day marathon meeting was unable to fashion an agreeable zoning formula for the distribution of key offices in the National Assembly.
The non-availability of parliamentarians from the South-East geopolitical zones on the platform of the APC in either chamber of the National Assembly is giving the party a big headache in deciding how best to go about sharing the offices through the zoning arrangement.
The South-South has a Senator from Edo State who by the rule of the parliament cannot be elected as a principal officer, being fresher and therefore not a ranking Senator in accordance with the chamber’s rule.
The one in the House of Representatives, also from Edo state, Pally Iriase, barely meets the criteria for election as a principal officers being a second-term lawmaker.
There are four other lawmakers in the lower parliament who are four-time parliamentarians and therefore ranked far higher than Iriase.
With the party at a cross road, the NWC members who were said to be unable to break the puzzle were said to have taken the easiest way out by taking a blanket division of the parliament into two, giving one arm to the North and the other arm to the South.
By the arrangements as contained in the document to be submitted to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party for final ratification when it begins today, the North-central zone looks poised to produce the successor to David Mark, while the Deputy Senate President will come from the North-east.
There are insinuations also that some party leaders have already settled for the candidature of former Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki who is a decampee sitting Senator from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while some others are said to be rooting for the candidature of another fomer Governor, George Akume from Benue State.
Akume was elected into the Senate on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), one of the major principal partners in the formation of the APC.
He’s seen as a “Landlord” with a bigger stake in the APC formation.
In resolving the logjam in the House of Representatives, the South-west is said to have been alloted the seat of the Speaker while the South-South seems set to produce the Deputy Speaker.
Pally Iriase automatically takes the Deputy Speakership seat, if the arrangement is strictly followed in the chamber, during the inauguration of the eighth Assembly where elections of Presiding Officers are mandatorily done.
To carry along the South East in the scheme of things in the government, there are insinuations that the zone has been allocated the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), a development that runs contrary to the much publicised news that the seat has been set aside for the River State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi from the South-South who has sacrificed so much for the party.
He served as the Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, just as he is believed to a major financier of the party.
Other principal officers in the House of Representatives like the House Leader, the deputy, Chief Whip and deputy are allegedly reserved for the North while the principal officers in the Senate, with the exception of the Senate Leader are allegedly reserved for the South.
The party is quoted to have also reserved the seat for Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwakwanso, but the presence of more senior Senators in terms of ranking in the red chamber, who hail from the North-west like is a major impediment to the feasibility of the Kwakwanso project.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of APC is said to have been reserved for North-east, while the South-east would get secretary of the BoT.
But on Monday, the party urged Nigerians to disregard the wild speculations making the rounds, concerning the appointment of ministers and the zoning of offices under the incoming Buhari Administration.
In statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said there is no truth to anything that has been dished out by the rumour mill concerning the issues of appointment, especially the zoning of the National Assembly’s principal positions and other offices.
It said that in the true tradition of the APC, all issues of public interest will be handled transparently and conveyed to Nigerians through the usual communication channels.
The party in the statement added: “No appointments have been made and no offices have been zoned. The main concern of our party at the moment is to ensure a smooth transition and to hit the ground running, in the overall interest of the long-suffering people of Nigeria.
“At the appropriate time, Nigerians will be informed of the appointments made and the offices zoned”.
While the statement may have been aimed at calming nerves, it may as well have given inkling to a seeming wrangling within the party hierarchy on its zoning pattern, hence the need to jettison the arrangement.
But keen watchers wonder however what the APC’s National Working Committee (NWC) deliberated upon for all of three days if not on the thorny issue.
Already, since word went round about the said arrangement, it seemed to have generated cold war within the National Assembly as intense lobby is already ongoing by lawmakers favoured if the unfolding scenario materialises.
For instance, despite the South-west being favoured for the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the North is said to have its eyes on the prize and might be heading for a collision course with the South to have one of its candidates assume the seat.
National Leader of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is also purported to be wielding his influence as far as the National Assembly is concerned, a move that may not go down well with some chieftains of the party.
This, the Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, believes could be the Achilles Heels of the party if it drags its feet to sort out the arrangement once and for all.
Kwankwaso at the weekend, warned his party against threading the same path as its rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did in 2011, where a seeming delay in zoning such offices resulted in the obstruction of the zoning arrangement and a later crisis that affected the fortunes of the party.
The governor who spoke with newsmen in Abuja, said “my advice to my party is that they should quickly do it. Those of us who witnessed what happened in 2011, I don’t believe that that party should waste any more time. Because the implication of delay is that the people in some zones will go round the country mobilising support for themselves and if the zoning decides to come late they will be so strong in their campaign such that they can disobey the party just as we saw during the Tambuwal case in 2011”.
The problems envisaged by Kwakwanso has been manifesting as parliamentarians from the North West openly showed their preference for a candidate from the North in person of Yakubu Dogara, a Christian from the Kaduna.
A member of the North West parliamentarians forum in the House of Representatives, forum Nasiru Baballe Ila (APC, Kano), made public the adoption of Dogara by the Forum on Sunday.
Incidentally, Abdulmumin Jibrin who remains the only aspirant who has openly indicated a desire to lead the lower parliament, is from Kano.
Recently, news emanated that he’s been chosen to be Deputy to Femi Gbajabiamila as speaker under the new zoning arrangement.
Baballe Ila, however, in the statement announcing the adoption of Dogara, said the north west opted to support Dogara because he is most qualified for the job and the “fitted for the position of speaker and he is humble, intelligent and calm. These are qualities of good leadership.
“We in the House believe in consolidation. The current leadership of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has stabilised the House and given it a name.
“We cannot afford to go back on this and that is why we must ensure that only people of like minds such as Dogara are elected into leadership positions in the 8th assembly.
“Electing Dogara as speaker will go long way in uniting the people of northern Nigeria who are of different ethnic groups and religions.
“We want to make sure that we go back to the good old days when we coexisted as one people in the north in the days of our forefarthers.
“Electing a northern Christian as speaker will give a sense of belonging to our christian bretheren that we are one people and they too can become anything in a united Nigeria.
“By ranking he has got cognate legislative experience and his 22 years legal practice readily comes to mind.
“He has held sensitive positions in the House since 2007 and has discharged his duties effectively.
“He is incorruptible and credible. Our president-elect General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) need people like Dogara to work with and bring about the much needed change in Nigeria” the statement said.
However, despite the denials by the APC spokesman, the coming weeks would prove crucial for the party which is preparing to take up power at the centre.
The party surely cannot afford a false start, let alone begin to show its weak points.
Expectations are high from the President-elect and those who will constitute his team. Thus, the challenges lying in wait will certainly present a greater task than any rift from its zoning arrangement.
