The All Progressives Congress (APC) is scheming to take over the two chambers of the National Assembly without altering its leadership structure.
This is even as the Peoples Democratic Party is pushing to truncate the opposition’s grab of the legislative chambers with a five-point strategy.
The legislative arithmetic in the House of Representatives is now in favour of the APC, while similar scenario is prevailing in the Senate.
The lawmakers have, however, become so mixed that a change in leadership is reportedly not on the table.
Checks showed that in the House of Representatives, the APC has quietly taken over with some PDP lawmakers known to be APC in PDP colours.
Reports further indicated that Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, who attended the PDP caucus meeting on Wednesday night, is sympathetic to the APC and is, therefore, providing protection for defected lawmakers in exchange for retaining his leadership position.
If the opposition has effected smart take-over operation in the lower house, similar model is being applied to the Senate, where the defectors are reported to be holding the Senate President to his word of growing beyond sectional interest.
Findings showed that the APC is planning a defection that would tilt the balance of numbers in favour of the opposition, while not making attempt to remove Senator David Mark or change the chamber’s subsisting leadership structure.
The APC is pushing Senator Mark into the same position as Speaker Tambuwal even though it is not clear whether the Senate President will play the game his counterpart in the lower house is playing.
The PDP is, however, not watching idly as the APC executes its take-over bid. The ruling party, after marathon night meetings involving its governors and party leaders alongside the House caucus of the party, has fashioned out five strategies to tackle the APC.
According to insiders, the first strategy is to mount vigorous legal challenges against defectors, a reason said to be behind the new cases just instituted by the party. The party hopes to get some seats declared vacant to stem any further defection.
The direct involvement of President Goodluck Jonathan through calls to lawmakers is reported to have been executed on the advice of a top lawmaker. This was said to be behind the reduction to 37 the number of defectors in the lower house. Similar personal presidential calls to senators are said to be ongoing
Saturday Tribune further learnt that the third approach is fast-tracking of reconciliation which saw the governors dropping their bid to push out Bamanga Tukur out of the PDP chairmanship.
Offer of automatic ticket is also included as this particularly formed a key agreement at the Wednesday night meeting. The party is reported to have agreed to give re-election tickets to the lawmakers who agree to stay within the party.
The last strategy is said to be pressure on Senator Mark not to play a Tambuwal in the upper chamber. Sources at the Wednesday meeting confirmed that a team is to meet the Senate President to get him to stand by the party’s plan to declare vacant, the seat of defectors.
Source: Tribune
