ABUJA — The
dramatic election of four key officers of the National Assembly yesterday
unsettled the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and breathed life into the
Peoples Democratic Party which lost its prime position to the APC.
At the end of intrigues and drama that followed the battle
for the four presiding officers’ positions in the National Assembly, all the
candidates of the APC lost to the candidates backed by the opposition Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP.
In his immediate reaction to the emergence of the National
Assembly presiding officers, President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledged that a
constitutional process has occurred in the election even though he wished the
process had followed the initiative by the APC.
Senator Bukola Saraki of the APC was returned unopposed as
Senate President as the game of intrigues which played through Monday night to
the early hours caught the APC leadership on the wrong side. His emergence was
facilitated by the solid backing of the 49-member strong PDP caucus with
unalloyed support from APC Senators from Zamfara, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kogi and
Kwara States. As part of the quid pro quo from the PDP, the Saraki
elements backed the return of Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP as Deputy
President of the Senate, the first time a bipartisan leadership was enthroned
in the Senate.
The emergence of Saraki and Ekweremadu bounced off
negatively for the official APC candidate in the House of Representatives, Femi
Gbajabiamila, who lost to the unofficial APC candidate, Yakubu Dogara.
Gbajabiamila was also widely reported to be strongly backed by the party leader
and former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The rout of the APC leaders’ choices was completed late last
night when the party’s candidate for Deputy Speaker, Tahir Monguno also lost to
the unofficial candidate backed by the PDP, Lashan Yusuf. The contest for the
deputy was after Gbajabiamila had, after his defeat, spurned entreaties from
the Dogara camp to take the position of Deputy Speaker. Rep. Leo Ogor,
coordinator of the PDP in the chambers and Deputy Leader of the House in the
Seventh House of Representatives also spurned the offer.
Saraki’s emergence as Senate President was preceded by hard
negotiations and intrigues that played for most of Monday night into the early
hours of Tuesday.
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