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As The Newly Elected Legislators Receive Their Return Certificates On Tuesday, The Leadership Race Heats Up

As The Newly Elected Legislators Receive Their Return Certificates On Tuesday, The Leadership Race Heats Up

As The Newly Elected Legislators Receive Their Return Certificates On Tuesday, The Leadership Race Heats Up, News, Google news, Wikipedia, BBC news, BBC Hausa, Punch news, daily news, daily trust,
As The Newly Elected Legislators Receive Their Return Certificates On Tuesday, The Leadership Race Heats Up 

Google News: As The Newly Elected Legislators Receive Their Return Certificates On Tuesday, The Leadership Race Heats Up

By Abdullateef Salau, Itodo D. Sule & Saawua Terzungwe Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June, underground jostling for leadership positions…

By Abdullateef Salau, Itodo D. Sule & Saawua Terzungwe

Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June, underground jostling for leadership positions in the federal parliament has commenced.

INEC said certificates of return will be issued to the senators-elect on Tuesday while the House of Representatives members-elect will receive theirs Wednesday.

Daily Trust reports that the current 9th National Assembly was inaugurated in June 2019 and will come to an end in June 2023. In the same month, the 10th assembly will be inaugurated.

According to the results so far declared by INEC, the ruling APC retained the majority of both the Senate and House of Representatives seats, with 57 and 162 members respectively.

A week after the election, those eyeing the positions of the Senate president, deputy Senate president, House of Representatives speaker, deputy speaker, and other principal officers have begun their moves.

Though the APC lawmakers-elect scheming for the presiding officers’ posts are yet to declare their interests, sources told Daily Trust that they were already reaching out to their colleagues, seeking their support and the party leadership in zoning the positions to their geo-political zones.

Many, it was learnt, had sent out their foot soldiers, comprising high-profile lawmakers, to commence underground campaigns, and arrange a meeting with the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the constitution of the leadership of the national parliament.

Although Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila have won re-election, they are not likely to be considered for the plum jobs apparently to balance the power-sharing formula.
Both Tinubu and Gbajabiamila are from Lagos, while Lawan and Kashim Shettima, the vice president-elect, are from the North East.

Barau Jibrin (Kano), Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) Sani Musa (Niger), and Dave Umahi (Ebonyi) are among the potential frontrunners for the Senate presidency.

Barau Jibrin
Jibrin, a ranking lawmaker, was first elected in 1999 to the House of Representatives, where he chaired the House Committee on Appropriations.
He switched to the Senate in 2015 to represent Kano North and has won re-elections since then. At different times, he chaired Senate committees, including Appropriations.
Jibrin enjoys the support of many of his colleagues, who often describe him as a soft-spoken lawmaker.
He is the only APC candidate to win a senatorial seat from Kano. The two others were won by NNPP.

Kalu is the Chief Whip of the Senate. His campaigners are banking on a balanced power-sharing formula, which they believe may push APC leadership to consider the South East believed in some quarters to be “marginalised zones”, and a Christian to win the confidence of the Christians after the outrage that followed the APC Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
Sources close to Kalu said he had started reaching out to his colleagues and APC governors, whose states produced APC senators in the last elections.

A member of APC National Working Committee (NWC), who preferred not to be named, said arrangement is ongoing to meet with Tinubu to table to him reasons the next President of the Senate should emerge from the Southeast, amongst which include a balance of power and avoidance of a Muslim-Muslim leadership.
The source added that the majority of the party’s NWC was working on reaching an agreement with other members of the party leadership to zone the number three citizen to the South-east, as part of moves to pacify the People of the region, having missed out on the presidential contest in all the parties at a time the clamour for a president of Igbo extraction was high.

During our party primaries, the Southeast didn’t get the support of the party to produce the presidential flag bearer. This didn’t go down well with South Easterners. Now, this is another opportunity to prove to Nigerians that we are a party for all,” the source said.

A close associate of Sani Musa said the senator, who chairs Committee on Senate Services, would declare his ambition if the party zone the position to the North Central geopolitical zone.
Musa had vied for the position of APC national chairman but was prevailed upon, along with other aspirants, to step down for a consensus candidate.
Asked if Senator Musa could emerge as the Senate President when the National Chairman of the Party is also from the North Central zone, the source said Adamu Abdullahi would not mind resigning his appointment to make that happen.

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