Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja

 Ahead of the formal announcement of the zoning arrangements for the positions of presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly, the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress and the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, might have settled for a Christian from the Southern part of Nigeria to become the President of the Senate.

Investigations have also revealed that the APC and Tinubu may have conceded the position of the Deputy President of the Senate to the North-Central geopolitical zone.

At the moment, four Christian senators from the South-South and South-East are angling for it even though preference will be given to a ranking senator.

However, other senators from the North-Central and North-West have also shown interest in the number one presiding officer of the Red Chamber.

Multiple sources within the party and loyalists of the President-elect, told This Nigeria on conditions of anonymity in Abuja yesterday that the arrangement would douse the tension being created over the zoning of presiding officers.

The sources added the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives would likely be zoned to the North-West geopolitical zone, while a ranking member-elect from the South-West would possibly, emerge as Deputy.

Justifying the decision to zone the Senate Presidency to the South, a source who is a former ranking senator in the 7th Senate explained that it was in line with Tinubu’s promise to unite the country and heal all wounds, after his February 25th victory at the polls.

He noted that Tinubu’s administration was determined to end the politics of ethnicity and religion in the country by ensuring that adherents of the two main religions are adequately accommodated in the running of his government.

He said, “Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s performances in the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones were very poor because the people in the regions voted along ethnicity and religion lines.

“Ordinarily, ranking lawmakers from the North Central and the North West which produced the majority of the votes that led to the emergence of Tinubu, should be scrambling to become Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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“However, members of the NWC and Tinubu believe that a Southern Christian from either the South-East or the South-South should become the Senate President to ensure balance since both Tinubu and the Vice-president Elect, Kashim Shettima, are Muslims.”

The Senator added that the APC, Tinubu, and the Vice President-Elect are, however, favourably disposed to rewarding regions which produced high votes during the presidential election.

He said, “For instance, Tinubu polled 2,653,235 as against Atiku’s 2,329,802 in the North-West while he also scored 1,670,091 in the North-Central to defeat Atiku, who polled 1,087, 884.

“In the South-West, Tinubu had 2,279,407 votes against Atiku’s 941,940. Atiku, however, won in the North-East scoring 1,741,851, while Tinubu got 1,185,458

“The South-East geopolitical zone voted massively for their son, Peter Obi, who scored 1,960,589 as against Tinubu’s 127,605

“The situation was not different in the South-South with Obi polling 1,210,673 votes against Tinubu’s 799,957”

The source added, “Were it not for religion and ethnic considerations, ranking federal lawmakers from the North-Central and the North-West geopolitical zones should ordinarily head the two Chambers of the National Assembly as presiding officers, based on the volume of votes their regions produced.”

He said, “A single Senatorial District in Niger State which is in the North Central geopolitical zone produced more votes than the entire South East and four states in the South-South delivered for Tinubu.

“For example, Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State produced 25,858 votes for Tinubu while Shiroro LGA polled 18,954 for him

Others are, “Munya LGA (7235), Tafa LGA (8927), Suleja LGA (15,917) Gurara LGA (12,283), Paikoro LGA- (18,550), Rafi LGA (16,963) and Bosso LGA (19,767).

“A total of 157,371 votes delivered for the renewed hope ticket by the Niger East Senatorial District are more than the entire votes Tinubu got from the South-East region which is 127,605,” the Source added.

The source added that Senator representing Niger East Senatorial District, Sani Musa, who is billed to declare his intention to contest the Senate Presidency sometime this week, is most favoured for the position.

He said, “If the thinking of the APC is that the North–West geopolitical zone should produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives, a ranking Senator from the North Central is automatically well positioned to emerge as a Presiding Officer of the red chamber.”

Another APC chieftain also said, “Unlike some of the senatorial candidates who delivered themselves and abandoned Tinubu during the presidential election, results from Sani Musa’s Senatorial District showed he stood firm and delivered the mandate for Asiwaju.

“For instance in the North-West, two ranking senators-elect contesting the Senate Presidency, lost their states to the People’s Democratic Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party respectively while they won their senatorial districts.”

There could, however, be a possible repeat of the drama that played out in the Eight Senate when senators, who were dissatisfied with the zoning arrangements of the APC, decided to choose their leader.

Investigations by This Nigeria revealed that the former governor in the South-South, who has just been elected into the Senate for the first time, might be favoured to emerge as the Senate President.

Further findings revealed that the senator-elect is currently in the United Kingdom where he allegedly went to meet the President-elect, to perfect the arrangement.

A source who spoke on conditions of anonymity said, “There are strong indications that the Tinubu camp wants the former governor as Senate President and would stop at nothing to make it possible.

“They are even said to be perfecting strategies to change through the back door, the Senate rules to now accommodate a fresher to contest the position of the Senate President.

“At the moment only ranking senators could contest the position but there is a process to use the Clerk to the National Assembly to change the rules before the resumption of the senators-elect in the 10th Senate.

“The same thing happened in 2015 when the Senate rules was amended overnight by the CNA which introduced secret voting during the election of presiding officers. It used to be by open ballot before then.”

Attempts to reach the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to find out when the NWC of the party would meet to decide the zoning, failed yesterday as the calls made to his mobile phone indicated that it had been switched off.

Adamu had also yet to reply to the text message sent to him as of the time of sending this report.