By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
The political philosophy of one North had in the past been successfully used to browbeat the other parts of the country in the sharing of the spoils of electoral victory. Now the North is split into its components over the sharing of the latest spoil of victory.
The top hierarchy of the All Progressives Congress, APC had for long resolved that it would not count the chicken before they were hatched. It was a reasonable assumption as before the elections no one contemplated the level of victory that the party subsequently harvested. With Hurricane Buhari having made landfall and swept the once dominant Peoples Democratic Party, PDP into near irrelevance, the APC is now set to determine the primary occupants of the top offices in the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
With the president coming from the Northwest and the vice-president coming from the Southwest, the allocation of the next political offices in the order of protocol, the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and their deputies would have to be resolved among the four other contending geopolitical zones.
The matter has, however, been made a little bit easier by the fact that the Southeast and the South-South did not return any APC senator putting the two geopolitical zones out of contention on the issue of Senate President. One or two members of the House of Representatives were, however, returned from the two geopolitical zones on the ticket of the party. But given the lightness of the party’s victory in the two zones it would have to be a serious challenge for the two zones to be able to produce a presiding officer of the House.
It is thus not surprising that the North-Central and the Northeast have become the two major contending geopolitical zones battling for the office of Senate President.
Remarkably, both zones have the same number of senators; 14 apiece with equally very powerful contenders waiting on the wings to clinch the post.
Formidable contenders
•Buhari
Among the most formidable contenders are the incumbent Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and Senator Bukola Saraki, all from the North Central and from the Northeast are the likes of Senator Danjuma Goje and Senator Ahmad Lawan each of whom have their particular advantages and baggage that they could help or shoot down their aspirations.
Campaigners from the Northeast are pushing their zone on the basis that the North-Central Zone should be ruled out on the claim that the latter has held the position in the last eight years in the person of David Mark from Benue State. It is an argument that is bound to find resonance among many. However, that argument is bound to be challenged by those who claim that the commonality of culture and religion that makes it difficult to distinguish the people of the Northwest from those of the Northeast would be too hard for other geopolitical zones and cultures to swallow. It is an argument that would tend to push the argument in favour of the North-Central which even though part of the North, can claim a separate cultural identity in a way that the Northeast cannot do.
Besides, unlike before when the North-Central was a fertile ground for the PDP, the APC led by its leaders like Senators Akume and Saraki almost successfully engineered the disappearance of the PDP from the region and could as such boast of having a big hand in the victory of the party.
But coming down to the North-Central the perceived aspirants would have to settle among themselves and it would not be surprising if supporters of Saraki and Adamu tell those of Akume that Benue State has had its fair share of Senate Presidents from Senators Iyorchia Ayu, Ameh Ebute and now to David Mark’s record eight-year grip on the office.
But it is to Akume’s advantage that he is the present APC leader in the Senate, a position that puts him in good reckoning for consideration.
Besides the geopolitical considerations, party leaders are also expected to consider balancing the spoils among the four major political tendencies that joined forces to push the APC to electoral victory. The major forces were the three legacy parties, namely, the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP and the new Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP.
The CPC presently has the president in the person of General Muhammadu Buhari, the ACN has the vice-president, in the person of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo while the ANPP has its portion in the national chairmanship of the party as represented by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. It is thus not surprising that the nPDP tendency consisting mostly of the five governors who left the PDP to join the APC in November 2013 would project the senators who came with them such as Senators Saraki, Goje and Abdullahi Adamu for the top position.
Given the determination of the North-Central to edge the Northeast out of the running for the Senate President, it is not surprising that a number of stakeholders from the Northeast are now grasping for the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation. That itself is another argument as some from the Northeast are asserting that the zone’s aspiration for the slot of the SGF should not preclude it from canvassing for any of the four presiding officer positions in the National Assembly.
The stakeholders from the region are pushing the claim that the last time that a president from the Northwest was president, (Umaru Yar‘adua) that someone from the Northeast, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe was appointed as the SGF.
Despite suggestions that the position of SGF may have been zoned to Governor Chibuke Amaechi, the director-general of the campaign, some from the Northeast are already projecting candidates for the position, among whom is the famed bureaucrat, Ambassador Ahmad Jidda, the incumbent secretary to the Borno State Government.
In canvassing the aspiration for the SGF, the Save Borno Now, SABORN, affirmed that the position was of more relevance to the zone than the Senate presidency or speakership of the House.
The group in a statement signed by Alhaji Kolo Maisandari and Bukar Tahir, as Chairman and Secretary respectively said: “We are not new to the politics of Borno, just as we are not new to the politics of the region. Recall that we were the first group to raise the alarm in 2010 that the then Borno governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, plans to foist his kid brother on the people of the State. When we raised the alarm then, many did not believe us. But events later vindicated us.
“We have carefully followed the debates in the newspapers, and we have also read the positions being canvassed by some APC chieftains from the North-East. Only recently, one of them said the position of the Senate President or that of the Speaker would help in rebuilding the region.
“But we beg to differ. If you are talking about rebuilding the North-East region, an SGF position would better serve that interest. And we think if the region is lobbying for that position, we don’t think it is too much. After the North-West, the North-East was another region in the North that gave the APC block votes. So compensating the region with that position will not be too much.
“Most importantly too, APC must avoid the mistake the PDP made, under the Jonathan’s administration, by not allowing technocrat to occupy the position. That position will be better managed by a technocrat.
“Recall that under late Yar’Adua as President, the position was also giving to the zone. So if you talk about history, there is a precedent, where we had a President from the North-West, and the SGF, from the North-East. So there is nothing unusual about our demand. We hope and pray our elders and politicians would listen and work hard, so as to ensure that the position does not elude us. And if when the party decides to listen to the voice of reason, we have a credible and well-experienced man from Borno, who fits the bill. He is Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda, a loyal party man, who is unarguably, the longest serving SSG, Secretary to State Government, SSG, in the entire country. He has occupied the position since 2005,” the group, added.
Battle Ground Zones
- North central and North East have 14 senators each
- North Central has always produced the Senate president but in Benue
- North East has cultural similarity to Northwest
- North East stakeholders want SGF
