Ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the leadership of the National Assembly, President Bola Tinubu, Thursday, met behind closed doors with the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Though details of the meeting were not disclosed, it was gathered that the President was given the true situation of the crisis rocking the zoning formula by the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
This came as Senator Lawan denied aspiring for the 10th President of the Senate, saying that the choice of the leadership of the upper legislative chamber will be determined by national interest.
How Tinubu was misinformed —Source
On the crisis rocking the choice of presiding officers for the 10th National Assembly, a reliable source disclosed how the Senate President informed the President that all was not well.
The APC had zoned the Senate Presidency to the South- South and the Speakership of the House of Representatives to the North-West. The party also zoned the Deputy Senate Presidency to the North-West; and Deputy Speakership to the South-East.
Specifically, the party settled for Senators Godswill Akpabio/ Barau Jubrin for Senate leadership and Messrs Abass Tajudeen/Ben Kalu for House of Representatives leadership.
President Tinubu’s meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly, the source said, was an eye-opener as the Senate President “politely, told the president that there is fire on the mountain.”
The source said: “Things are beginning to unfold gradually but unfortunately it appears things are getting altered to contain because even the meeting that the president held with the Senate President and the speaker was an eye opener to Mr President.
“It was today (yesterday) at the meeting the president got to know that he was either misinformed or distorted pieces of information were handed to him in respect of the National Assembly leadership.
“If you observe, the Speaker is using the same method to mislead the president and twist the situation around him. The same way he sent out the endorsement of Akpabio and Abbass even before the president made up his mind.
He has flown another flier to test the waters so that the president will be boxed to another corner.
“It is cheering that the Senate President boldly but politely, told the president that there is fire on the mountain. He gave the man the real situation of things and even protested that he was excluded when the Speaker was putting permutations together in respect of the National Assembly leadership of which he is chairman.
“The Senate President was very truthful with the president that if things are allowed to go on the way they are, two dangerous scenarios await the APC. He said it is either APC loses the speakership to the opposition PDP if two APC aspirants run for speakership or the north corners both the speakership and senate presidency.
“So, all indications point to the fact that the issue of leadership scout for 10th assembly was largely mismanaged by the speaker and his so-called trusted allies in the 9th assembly.
What we discussed with Tinubu—Lawan
At the end of their parley with the President, Lawan, in a chat with State House correspondents, said: “What will inform the emergence (of the next leadership) will be the national interest, interest of the National Assembly, the legislature to together and therefore everybody matters in this process?
In addition, he said: “As the chairman of the 9th National Assembly, I find it dutiful and necessary to work with all the major stakeholders especially the leadership of our country, Mr President particularly to give my necessary opinion and advise on how the new leadership of the National Assembly should emerge and what we need to do to ensure stability, productivity of the National Assembly and to ensure peaceful atmosphere between the legislature and the executive arm of government.”
I’ve no interest to contest Senate Presidency
On the allegation that he had indicated interest in contesting for the presidency of 10th senate, Lawan said: “On a more serious note, I have never indicated interest to run for the office of the president of the senate in the 10th National Assembly. “We have worked together with distinguished senators of the 9th national assembly and members of House of Representatives to create a very clement environment for us to work.”
