By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) might have finally agreed to reconsider the North-Central geopolitical zone in the 10th National Assembly presiding officers.
ThisNigeria learnt that the decision was the aftermath of a meeting between Tinubu and a few aspirants shortly after he arrived from France late Saturday.
Tinubu was said to have met with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase; Senator Godswill Akpabio; and Senator Sani Musa, individually.
Wase, who is contesting the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, was said to have met Asiwaju first.
He was said to have left without exchanging pleasantries with his colleagues after the meeting.
A source at Tinubu’s residence said, “Wase’s countenances changed the moment he emerged from the meeting with Tinubu. It was reliably gathered that Asiwaju offered to nominate him as a cabinet minister, suggesting that all was not well with their discussion. He didn’t even stop by to greet his other colleagues and we were very surprised.”
The source added that other aspirants who met with Tinubu, however, came out after their discussion with the president-elect in high spirits.
He said none of them offered to make any comment before they left.
Further investigations revealed that the leadership of the APC and the President-elect had agreed in principle to review the zoning arrangements which the party released two weeks ago.
A source also explained that the latest disagreement between Tinubu and the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje as regards Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Paris visit, is exposing the ulterior motives behind certain decisions and advice which some northern governors gave to the President-elect.
Their advice on the issue of National Assembly leadership positions, according to a source, “can very well be described as selfish and not the true reflection of the views of the majority.”
He said, “Such advice is the issue of zoning and this might cost the North-West, one of the two presiding officers’ positions which had already been zoned to it.”
The North-West had two presiding officers’ positions- Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy President of the Senate- zoned to it while both the South-South and South-East got one each and this had thrown the party in disarray.
The North-Central geopolitical zone was completely left out of the zoning arrangements.
Another source at Tinubu’s residence also confirmed the planned minor review of the zoning arrangements.
He said, “The meeting between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso in France had revealed the real reasons, the APC lost both the presidential and governorship elections in Kano State.
“After the meeting between Asiwaju and Kwankwaso, the aspirants who contested the last general elections in the state on the platform of the APC also got in touch with Tinubu. They alleged that Ganduje did not support them with funds and logistics before and on the day of the election.
“They added that Senator Barau Jibrin was able to win his senatorial seat because he had enough resources to prosecute his election.”
The source also explained that the aspirants lamented to Asiwaju, how they could not raise enough funds to even mobilise agents to polling units on Election Day.
As a result of the revelation and the subsequent audio leak involving Ganduje and Ibrahim Masari, former vice presidential placeholder candidate of the APC.
They both discussed the meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
Ganduje during the leaked phone conversation said, “The right thing is that even if he (Tinubu) will grant Kwankwaso audience, it should be in our presence. We should be invited. Did you understand? Even if it is symbolically.”
The outburst of Ganduje, according to a source, did not go down well with Tinubu, who was now said to have decided to base the zoning arrangements of National Assembly leadership positions on the performances of each geopolitical zone in the last election.
*North-Central favoured based on last election performance
A source who witnessed all activities at the residence of the President-elect on Saturday night explained that Tinubu had said the North-Central should not be left out in the zoning arrangements.
The source said, “Tinubu told all the aspirants that the decision to zone the offices will be looked into to bring a balance.”
The source noted that the office of the Speaker will likely be in the North-West as it is a substantive number four office higher than the Deputy Senate President in the hierarchy.
“There are very strong indications that the President-elect will do the needful to compensate the North-Central with a presiding officer because he declared that all zones apart from the South-West and the North-East should produce a presiding officer.
“Tinubu believed that it would be unfair to deny the North-Central, a presiding officer position despite the impressive volume of votes he got from the zone during the presidential election,” the source added.
