By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
It is still not certain whether there would be a double nomination or not on the floor of the Senate during the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly next week as senators-elect across political parties are holding meetings with leading aspirants and pledging their loyalty for them.
Investigations by ThisNigeria revealed that as some of them were supporting and identifying with the Stability Group led by Senator Godswill Akpabio, others are in the Senate Democratic Caucus (SDC) led by Abdul-Aziz Yari, a Senator-elect from Zamfara West.
Akpabio is running a joint ticket with Senator Barau Jibrin and they already had the endorsement of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress.
Yari, on the other hand, is in alliance with Senators Orji Kalu and Osita Izunaso and they had agreed to meet on Tuesday, (tomorrow), to finalise the alliance talks.
ThisNigeria gathered that the meeting will agree on who would run for the position of the 10th Senate President and the person that would be the deputy.
Following secret meetings senators-elect are holding with major aspirants both the Akpabio and Yari camps are claiming that they each had over 70 endorsements already.
While Yari said no fewer than 77 senators-elect had signed endorsement forms for it, the Akpabio/Jibrin camp said they have over 70.
A critical analysis of their claims that the figure they are both brandishing, is more than the 109 senators already elected to the 10th Senate.
A member of the Yari group, who craved anonymity, said, “As of Sunday afternoon, the Yari/Izunaso-led camp swelled from 73 to 77 senators-elect between Thursday and Sunday morning.”
The source said, “This is based on the statistics taken at the last outings of the two camps held simultaneously at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel and The Destination Hotel respectively.
“Barely 21 senators-elect attended the Stability Group of Akpabio, while 57 physically attended the Yari-led group meeting with concrete apologies from 16 other senators-elect who could not attend in person.
“However, as of Sunday morning, at least four of the senators-elect that attended the Akpabio meeting have shifted camp and alliance to the SDC. The four senators are from South-South and South-West.
“With this, the Yari/Izunaso-led group made up of senators-elect from the six geopolitical zones of the country now has 77 senators-elect in their camp, a clear majority in the 109-member Senate.
“Even with the 57 senators-elect that physically attended the meeting at Senator Izunaso-owned Destination Hotel, the group has already secured more than the 55 votes required to produce the Senate President.”
The source maintained that the simultaneous meetings of the two camps had confirmed the actual strength of the competing tendencies.
He said, “Senator Godswill Akpabio is not in any way a match for Senator Abdul-Aziz Yari or the other leading aspirant in his team, Senator Osita Izunaso.”
However, Akpabio’s Stability Group, on the other hand, insisted that it hosted over 70 senators-elect at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel dinner on Thursday night.
The Media Office of the Akpabio/Jibrin Stability Group Campaign in a statement made available to ThisNigeria insisted that the attendance at the Dinner cut across party lines.
The statement explained that it was a confirmation that members of the group were more than committed to handling issues brought before it in a bipartisan manner for national development and unity.
Some of the opposition political party members already elected to the 10th Senate expressed divergent views on the development in separate interviews with ThisNigeria in Abuja.
While some are fully committed to the Akpabio/Jibrin ticket, others said they are for the Yari’s group, giving different reasons.
Some of them who spoke with our correspondent strictly on conditions of anonymity said there was no way the opposition could back a single candidate any longer because they were already polarised.
In Senate, APC has 59 members-elect while the opposition made of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP0, the Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) have a combined 50.
Those who spoke with ThisNigeria on the meeting between them and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, slated for Monday, have said double nomination might be inevitable.
An opposition senators-elect from the South-West said, “The point is that two issues are on the ground. The religious balancing aspect and reward for areas with the highest number of votes.
“Apart from that, there are some among our colleagues who have argued that it would be unfair for the southerners to head the three arms of government.
“Tinubu, from the South-West, is the President; the head of the Judiciary is also from the South-West, it will be an aberration to have another southerner as head of the nation’s legislature.”
However, another opposition senators-elect who also spoke off the record, told ThisNigeria that as a party man, he believed that party supremacy should be upheld.
He said, “The President and the leaders of the APC had done the zoning of its National Assembly presiding officer’s positions. I see no reason to should not be respected.
“Apart from that, it will be strange in this country if another Muslim is elected as the number three most powerful Nigerian.
“We already have Tinubu and Kashim Shettima as President and Vice President respectively. There is no point having a Muslim as Senate President,” he added.
