LEADERS of the All Progressives Congress (APC) appeared to have averted what looks like a lingering crisis over the zoning of the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives in the eighth National Assembly.
Sources close to the party told the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday that after some prolonged meetings between Saturday and Sunday afternoon, the leaders were able to strike a deal, which would guarantee the position of Speaker of the next House of Representatives ceded to the South West, while the position of Deputy Speaker would go to the North West.
Sources confirmed that the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari; national leader of APC, Senator Bola Tinubu and the Kaduna State governor-elect, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, were instrumental to the last gap effort to save the party from the brink.
It was gathered that the ambition of some candidates from the North for the position of Speaker had, in the last two weeks, put the leaders of the party under pressure, with leaders of the South-West suspecting that the North was sabotaging their efforts to produce Speaker.
Honourable Abdumumin Jubril from Kano and Honourable Yakubu Dogara from Bauchi had been mounting campaigns among the incoming members of the House for the position of Speaker in recent weeks.
The situation apparently forced the South West to back out of its support for the North Central to produce the Senate President.
Some lawmakers from the zone had, at the weekend, announced the support for North East to produce the Senate President.
Sources in the party told the Nigerian Tribune that some lawmakers from the South West and North West would be announcing a deal in Abuja, today.
It was gathered that worried by the possibility of a Tambuwal scenario of 2011 repeating itself, party leaders including Buhari, Tinubu and el-Rufai, decided to intervene by calling a number of notable lawmakers to get the deal struck out at the weekend.
“There were meetings and contacts made at the higher level of the party and the deal eventually was reached that the North West would back the candidate of the South West for the speakership position.
“This would ensure that we avoid the Tambuwal scenario on the floor as the two zones account for almost half of the population of the House.
Before the deal was struck, the South West zone was actually walking a tight rope, as two front runners had emerged from the North West and North East.
The South West zone had been banking on deploying its senators to support the North East for the post of Senate President in the eighth National Assembly, with the hope of producing the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Initially, leaders from the zone were said to be backing Senator George Akume, the incumbent Senate Minority Leader (from Benue, North Central) for the post, but a strong challenge from Senator Bukola Saraki, also from the North Central, changed the equation.
Some of the leaders were said to have argued that the emergence of Saraki as Senate President could nullify South West’s bid for the headship of the green chamber, as some lawmakers might argue that the two chambers of the Assembly should not be headed by Yoruba.
Such realities was said to be behind recent posturing among legislators from the South-West, indicating that they might back Senator Ahmad Lawan from Yobe (North East) as Senate president.
That notwithstanding, sources told the Nigerian Tribune that the coast still appeared cloudy for the possibility of the South West producing the next Speaker.
It was gathered that some leaders of the zone had kickstarted a lobby of incumbent Speaker, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, to help rally the North West to back the quest for South-West speakership.
It was gathered that the quest by some candidates from the North West and North East for the position had continued unabated, notwithstanding the indication towards zoning.
The argument that the positions in the National Assembly should be contested by the most popular candidates in the chambers appeared to also endanger the quest by the South-West, as some sources maintained that lawmakers from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were rooting to negate a South-West speaker on the floor.
Sources in the PDP confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune that members of the party were aggrieved that the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) used its numbers from the South West to truncate the zoning arrangement of the party in 2011 and that it was payback time.
“The fact that the South West is not presenting a variety of candidates could also be its undoing,” a source said, adding that so far, the zone was known to be projecting only one candidate.
“Remember that the lawmakers from the South West truncated the PDP zoning arrangement in 2011 and gave their votes to Tambuwal as against Honourable Mulikat Adeola-Akande, the choice of the PDP. This is surely payback time,” a source close to the PDP said.
Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila from Lagos (South West) was being tipped from the South-West to emerge speaker, as he was also believed to be the anointed candidate of APC leaders in the zone.
The deal that would be announced today was said to be capable of dousing the tension and resolving possible crisis in the House of Representatives.
Source: Tribune
