The President-elect, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, has intervened in the brewing crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC) over who emerges the president of the Eighth Senate.
APC, which emerged the majority party in the Eighth Senate, to be inaugurated in June, has not been able to forge a consensus on who succeeds Senator David Mark as Senate President.
The battle for the Senate presidency has pitted APC senators from the North- Central against their party mates from the North-East while Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators are waiting in the wing to reap from the crisis.
However, sources said that to straighten the process for the nomination of candidates for top political appointments, especially in the National Assembly, Buhari has rolled out some criteria to be met by aspirants before they can get the party’s support.
One of the criteria is that no one under investigation for corruption should be considered for the job.
A source said the President- elect insisted that all leadership positions in the National Assembly should be occupied by persons with ‘clean records.’ Buhari rode to power on his vow to tackle corruption and insecurity.
It was gathered that a meeting of the party’s national leadership, held on Wednesday night in Abuja to consider the jockeying for positions, was inconclusive, but the source said the party’s caucus had mandated Buhari and the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun and three others “to meet and come up with an acceptable formula that will throw up unblemished candidates as our leaders in the National Assembly.”
He, however, did not disclose the identities of the three others, saying: “I cannot tell you the other three persons.”
According to findings, the mandate to the five-man committee became necessary as the APC reportedly discovered that the PDP senators were poised to re-enact the “2011 Tambuwal magic” against it.
House of Representatives’ Speaker, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, with support from his colleagues, had in 2011 thwarted the PDP zoning formula that ceded the speakership to the South- West.
Our correspondent learnt that the PDP senators were awaiting APC’s decision on zoning of the Senate presidency before taking a position on who to back.
The PDP’s wait-and-see stance appears to have been fuelled by reports that the two contenders from the North-Central, Senators Bukola Saraki and George Akume, have vowed not to step down for each other.
“To avoid a situation where two strong contenders from the same zone will go in for the contest, divide our votes and throw up a Senate President that is not the choice of the party leadership, there are strong indications that the North- East’s push for the position may become a reality because there is only one person, Senator Ahmad Lawan, from that zone; and there are no records showing that he has a corruption liability to offload.
“Our problem is not who to back and push for, but the issue is whether or not the rumour that a particular aspirant for the Senate presidency job has reached an accord with the PDP senators to frustrate the party’s effort at arriving at a consensus,” the source said.
He added that this fear and others informed the meeting of the APC leaders on Wednesday night.
“In politics, nothing should be left for chances at all; we all have been very careful about this issue of zoning all along.
“We thought of coming out with a formula by the end of today (Wednesday) but we just discovered a sinister plot by the PDP senators who have reached an accord with an aspirant to move against us at the inauguration where a Senate President will emerge.
“We had initially ignored such reports, but on a second thought, they could actually re-enact the 2011 Tambuwal magic against us; so we are very circumspect on the issue.
“This is not even the major issue, but the marching order our leader, the President-elect, has handed down to us in caucus. He has warned and expressly stated that anyone with any case with the anti-corruption agencies should not be fielded for the job,” the source stated.
He said Buhari at the meeting restated his commitment to the anti-corruption war and that those with bad records should not be allowed to hold critical positions, whether in the executive or legislative arm.
“The General was so categorical at the meeting. He said that he was ready to fight corruption and should not be encumbered in prosecuting the war through the emergence of some tainted candidates in critical positions, particularly as it relates to the National Assembly.
“In fact, his marching order to us was that anyone indicted by the antigraft agencies or anyone who is currently being prosecuted by any of the anti-graft agencies should not be allowed to aspire to key positions in his government,” the source said.
But it was learnt that the inability of the APC to arrive at a consensus on who emerges the Senate President was due to the jockeying by the three power blocs within the party; with each of them backing a candidate for the job.
The power blocs comprise members from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), led by former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, who are supporting Akume; the New PDP elements, led by the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi with Saraki as their choice and those from the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) who are supporting Lawan.
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