. Senate race hots between Lawan and Ndume
. Reps contest throw up more candiadtes
.Ekweremadu may run, as Omo-Agege set to win
The stage is set for the election of a new leadership of the National Assembly, comprising the Senate President and his/her deputy as well as Speaker of the House of Representatives and his/her deputy and other principal officers.
The election takes place tomorrow when the new national legislature holds its inaugural session following last week’s proclamation by President Muhammadu Buhari of the birth of the 9th National Assembly.
At the last count, no fewer than six All Progressives Congress (APC) members-elect have indicated interest in the speakership position in the Green Chamber while there are two main contenders from the same party jostling for the top senate job.
All the known major contenders are from the ruling party, however, the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may pull a joker, as the latest information from the grapevine has it that the immediate past Deputy Senate President (DSP), Ike Ekweremadu, may throw his hat into the ring.
Though the APC had presented Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe) for the Senate Presidency and Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos) for speakership, some lawmakers from the North-East and North-Central are calling on the party to zone the positions to their respective areas.
This is coming as some APC leaders met at the weekend to endorse Senator Omo-Agege (APC, Delta) for the position of the Deputy Senate President (DSP) as fears are also rising over the influence of the immediate past Senate President and the Speaker, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara respectively.
Those in contention for the senate top job are Ahmed Lawan, Ali Ndume, while DSP position has Aleikame, Omo Agege and Orji Kalu in the race, all from the ruling APC.
However, Rochas Okorocha, whose election is still hanging in the balance may turn the table if given his certificate of return before Tuesday.
Those running in the House of Reps race include; Femi Gbajabiamila, Jide Olatunbosun (Oyo) Mohammed Monguno (Borno), Olusegun Odebunmi, Abdulrazak Namdas (Bauchi) Khajidat Bukar-Ibrahim (Yobe), Nkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia), Umar Bago (Niger), Abubakar Lado (Niger), and Muhammed Kazaure (Jigawa), while Idris Wase (Plateau) is running for the Deputy Speakership position.
But the PDP is not leaving anything to chance. Its lawmakers have said in a statement that all senators can aspire to be Senate President, warning that they would not allow any outsider to determine the next Senate President.
Their statement was coming as a reaction to the APC stance, claiming that Saraki is trying to influence the incoming leadership.
The PDP lawmakers’ statement reads: “Let it be known that no matter the mischief being sponsored by these spineless people, Dr Saraki knows that it is the duty of all senators in the ninth Senate to elect their Senate President and other leaders.
“Nobody from outside the Senate has such powers. It is also the right of every senator to aspire to that position as stated by the constitution.
“He has benefited from this practice of senators within the chambers exercising the right. He is conscious of this fact and will not be a party to any plan to seize or interfere with the process of evolving the leadership of the ninth Senate.
“We, therefore, urge the APC gladiators and their handlers to leave Saraki out of their schemes and manipulations.
“They should go and concentrate on how to convince the senators-elect and ensure that the election of the next Senate President takes place in a conducive atmosphere with a view to strengthening the institution and making it perform its constitutional roles, without any hindrance,” the PDP caucus stated.
The senators alleged that the APC lawmakers were making it to appear that Saraki was seeking to play a role in who occupied the various leadership posts in the next Senate.
“His concern now is to continue to provide leadership to the Eighth Senate and to ensure that the Senate achieves as much as it is possible in the remaining two months of its tenure,” the PDP senators said.
Also, the PDP has said its elected senators and members of the House of Representatives are constitutionally eligible to lead the National Assembly.
The party noted that positions of the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker were not exclusively meant for any political party, but constitutional rights of every elected lawmaker in both chambers.
It, therefore, described as laughable, the move by the leadership of the APC and Buhari to impose leaders on both chambers.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, stated the position of the party in a statement in Abuja.
He said, “It is laughable and amounts to empty grandstanding and self-delusion for President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, to pose as if the presiding offices and committee chairmanship in the National Assembly are exclusive rights of the APC.
“President Buhari and Oshiomhole should wake up to the fact that the National Assembly belongs to no political party but to all Nigerians, who exercise their control through their elected representatives.
“For emphasis, Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear in providing that ‘There shall be:- (a) a president and a deputy president of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.’
“Section 92 (1) makes the same provision for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of State House of Assembly.”
The spokesman for the PDP insisted that the former ruling party had a role to play in the election of who would lead the two chambers.
What that role would be depends on how the APC caucus plays it card on the floors of the two chambers tomorrow. The party will be determined to maintain discipline and cohesion in other to avoid the kind of division within its rank that thwarted its attempt to have its favored candidates emerge as leaders in the immediate past 8th Assembly.
Lawan was the choice of the party as Senate President in the 8th Assembly but a deft move by Saraki that saw him team up with the opposition ensured he was elected Senate President an outcome that caused strained relationship between the executive and the national legislature throughout the life of that Assembly.
Baring any last minute defection or any unforeseen circumstances, the APC candidates are expected to clinch the top positions and steer the ship of the National Assembly for the next four years.
