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The 8th Senate inauguration, Tuesday, June 9, was followed by the election of former Kwara State governor and immediate past Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Bukola Saraki, APC, Kwara Central, as President of the Senate while the Deputy Senate President of the 7th Senate and senator representing Enugu West, Ike Ekweremadu, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, retained his seat.
It was an intriguing session as Saraki emerged with only 59 senators present of the 109 lawmakers in the upper chambre.
Ekweremadu, being from the opposition PDP, surprisingly emerged thereby giving room for a bipartisan Senate.
The events may have come and gone, but the wounds of the opposition party producing the Deputy Senate President have not healed.
The Senate went on three weeks break that would lapse on Tuesday, and, as the senators resume plenary, all the unresolved issues seem set to rear their heads and, if not properly managed, the lawmakers may head for a show down especially as the other principal offices would be filled.
Prior to the break, Saraki had announced Senator Ali Ndume as the Senate Majority Leader; Senator Ibn Na’Allah as Senate Deputy Majority Leader and Senator Francis Alimikhena, Edo North, as the Deputy Majority Whip.
The Senate President, who merely announced the three principal officers of the Senate following their nominations by senators of their various zonal caucuses, did not announce the occupant for the position of Senate Majority Whip.
The APC had put forward its list which was as follows: Senate Majority Leader (North east-Senator Ahmad Lawan); Deputy Majority Leader (North central-Senator George Akume); Senate Chief Whip (South west-Senator Olusola Adeyeye) and Deputy Chief Whip (North west-Senator Abu Ibrahim). The list was however jettisoned at the zonal caucuses of the party, thereby producing their own candidates.
While the ruling party, the APC has these positions, Senate Majority Leader; Deputy Majority Leader; Senate Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip, the opposition PDP has the Senate Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader; Senate Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip. “The PDP, however, said, through the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, it would not interfere in who emerges as principal officers of both the red and green chambers and that, in line with the Standing Orders, the officers would be elected through the caucuses of the party.
The PDP, unlike the APC that did not zone the positions, resulting in the theatre of the absurd at the House of Representatives, zoned the respective principal offices to the six geo- political zones, with the South South getting the Senate Minority Leader; Senate Minority Whip was zoned to the North Central; North East has Senate Deputy Minority Leader and South West has Senate Deputy Minority Whip.
For the House of Representatives, the PDP zoned the Minority Leader to South South; Minority Whip goes to North West; South East has Deputy Minority Leader and North East has Deputy Minority Whip.
It was gathered that its caucuses had settled for the immediate past Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta and senator representing Delta South, James Manager, for the position of Minority Leader; the immediate past Senate Committee Chairman on Power and senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Philip Tanimu Aduda, for Minority Whip; and former Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters and senator representing Gombe South, Joshua Lidani, for Deputy Minority Leader.
The North Central, which has the position of Minority Whip, may have settled for Senator Philip Tanimu Aduda because he was a member of the House of Representatives with good working relationship with his colleagues, especially now that some of his fellow colleagues and friends in the House of Representatives are now senators.
Meanwhile, some weeks ago, the immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, indicated interest in the Minority Leadership position of the Senate.
Akpabio coming into the race, as gathered, is causing a sharp division in the South South Caucus of PDP, because, before now, the senator that was extremely qualified for the position in line with the Senate rules was Manager who has been in the Senate since 2003 and, with the rule of ranking, he ordinarily would not have had any problem getting the position, but the former Akwa Ibom State governor, a source said, wants to use his influence as the immediate past Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum to get the post.
To drive home his fight for the Minority Leader’s position, Akpabio, last week, stormed the PDP National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza where he met with the National Working Committee, NWC.
Asked by journalists after his visit, Akpabio, who explained that he was still holding consultation on the matter, said that the decision would ultimately belong to PDP members in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
Also challenging Manager is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence and Army in the 7th Senate, Senator George Thompson Sekibo, PDP, Rivers East, and Senator John Enoh, PDP, Cross River Central.
However, there are very strong indications that Manager is being edged out of the Senate Minority Leader race ahead of Tuesday when the names of those who will occupy the minority offices in the red chambre would be announced.
According to a PDP senator on the development, “We are seeing the APC crisis now; ours is in the making because by July 21, if we too don’t sort ourselves out, we can at best say that what is capable of weakening the PDP ahead of its role as a viable opposition party in the years ahead may have been planted.
We all thought the issue of Senate Minority Leader had been laid to rest until the DSP(Deputy Senate President) called us for a meeting in his house where he sought people’s opinion on the propriety or otherwise of selecting Senator John Enoh for the position.“
I think it was from there the former Akwa-Ibom governor got the feeling that if the matter has to be revisited, then he would take a shot at it, but he doesn’t know that his ambition is against the rules of the Senate as regards the selection of its principal officers.“
Before then, we were all facing the challenge of the suggestion by the former president and his wife that we should consider Sekibo from Rivers but the duo of Ekweremadu and Wike kicked against it.“
From all indications, if we don’t step in on time, our earlier decision backing James Manager may fail as you know what money can do in politics; we can’t say money won’t work in this circumstance.”
Source: Vanguard
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