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Strong indications emerged yesterday that barely twenty fours after the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP rolled out its zoning arrangement for principal offices in the National Assembly, crisis looms over who should take these positions.
PDP as a minority party in the national Assembly would have the following positions, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader; Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip.
The fight by some PDP stakeholders would be coming on the heels of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) grappling with the challenges posed by the allocation of the Principal Officers of the National Assembly.
According to a source, the situation in the PDP appears to have pitched some influential leaders of the party, including the immediate-past president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, against the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu as well as Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state.
It was gathered that while both Ekweremadu and Wike are against the choice of Senator George Sekibo as Minority Leader as suggested by the former first family, the immediate-past governor of Akwa-Ibom state and now senator, Godswill Akpabio has thrown his hat in the ring for the same position, though he is not ranking in line with Senate Standing Orders 2015 as Amended.
But Akpabio’s ambition, which is at variance with the Senate Rules on ranking, a source said was almost having the blessing of majority of the senators from the South-South, the zone the position of Senate Minority Leader has been allocated.
For the position of Minority Whip which is zoned to North Central may have been settled on Senator Philip Tanimu Aduda representing the Federal Capital Territory. Senator Aduda, the immediate past Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, was a member of the House of Representatives and these place him as very ranking with wealth of experience of the Modus operandi of the National Assembly.
According to Chapter 2( 2) of Senate Standing Orders 2015 as Amended, ” Nomination of Senstors to serve as Presiding Officers and appointments of Principal Officers and other Officers of the Senate or on any Parliamentary delegations shall be in accordance with the ranking of Senators. In determining ranking, (1) Senators returning based on number of times re- elected.”
It would be recalled that the opposition PDP on Tuesday, through the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, had zoned minority positions in both chambers of the National Assembly, with the Senate Minority Leader to South-South while the North Central will produce Minority Whip.
Deputy Minority Leader and Deputy Minority Whip go to North East and South West respectively, while in the House of Representatives, PDP said it accepted the choice of the members who has already chosen Hon. Leo Ogor from South-South as Minority Leader.
Metuh who urged PDP lawmakers to consider ranking while getting their leaders said, “In consonance with the provision of your Standing Rules, you are through this medium advised to use your various Zonal Party Caucuses to choose the party’s Principal Officers to enable you provide effective opposition in the respective chambers of the National Assembly.
“The nomination process should take into consideration ranking, gender and religious sensitivity.
“Furthermore, it is the wish of the NWC that this exercise be concluded within one week and communicated accordingly.”
With the party’s position on ranking, Senator James Manager, Delta South who has been in the Senate since 2003 becomes the most qualified, but Akpabio’s interest in the position forms part of the reason for the looming crisis as the Senators and members of House of Representatives have one week to send the names to the national Secretariat ahead of the final decision that will be announced when the senate resumes plenary on July 21.
A senator from the South-South zone confided in a team of newsmen that the brewing crisis was ‘capable of weakening the PDP ahead of its role as a viable opposition party in the years ahead, adding, “We are seeing the APC crisis now, ours is also in the making because before 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 has been laid to rest until the DSP(Deputy Senate President) called us for a meeting in his house where he sort peoples opinion on the propriety or otherwise of selecting Senator John Owan Eno 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 who is from Rivers state 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 because you know what money can do in politics; we can’t say money won’t work in this circumstance.
“Although Akpabio has argued that both Manager and the House Minority Leader-designate, Hon Leo Ogor, being from Delta state, cannot hold the two positions simultaneously, we have also told him that since the PDP is in unusual circumstances, we can allow that to fly.”
Courtesy – Vanguard
