…Live updates below
It was a long and sleepless night in Abuja, Monday, with politicians downing cups of coffee, tea and else, to stay awake and maintain verve as the Tuesday date for the selection of the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives ticked in.
Spirited meetings within and across political parties and interest groups in and around Aso Rock, Abuja, the seat of power, carried through the night, with old members and the new elect, positioning, repositioning and horse trading, with power brokers seeking to influence the sway.
The air was rife with promises, persuasions, cajoling, diplomacy and enticements, to the end of determining the leadership of both houses of the National Assembly, with a vision to ensuring smooth sailing of proceedings thereof, in the interest of Nigeria at large, component groups and sometimes, to keep promises made in the build up to the elections.
In this game, the only static is the rule book, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to which all must yield. Even here, legal experts can append flexibility.
Since his inauguration on May 29 and even before, President Bola Tinubu has held myriad meetings within and across the lines of his majority All Progressives Congress (APC) party, seeking to enthrone the candidates of his choice into headship of the Senate and the House.
The President’s choice candidates are Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin as Senate President and Deputy Senate President. For the House of Representatives, his candidates are Tajudeen Abbas and Ben Kalu, as speaker and deputy.
There have been huge and vociferous oppositions to the President’s choices over the weeks, with contenders popping out of the woodwork with persuasive arguments in tow.
With diplomacy, horse trading, a position of power and a majority in both houses, however, Mr. Tinubu has been able to whittle down much of the opposition.
Meanwhile, proceedings for the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in Nigeria’s political capital city, Abuja have commenced.
The inauguration of both 10th Senate and 10th House of Representatives are done concurrently at the Red and Green Chambers.
Already, top contenders for the principal seats in both chambers have arrived at the venue ahead of the in-house election for each of legislative chambers, Channels News reports.
Also, outgoing Senate President, Ahmed Lawan; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume; former Governor of Kano State, Abdullah Ganduje, amongst other 109 senators are in attendance.
For the Green Chamber, about 360 lawmakers are also seated.
0845: Voting has begun on a state by state basis, alphabetically.
0844: The Clerk declared nominations closed in absence of further nominations. The contest is now between Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Abdul Aziz Yari.
0843: The shouting match was between Senators Solomon Olamilekan and Ishaku Abbo.
0844: Though the Point of Order was raised due to Senator Yari not being a ranking member of the Red Chamber, he accepted his nomination.
0841: A Point of Order was raised to counter the nomination of Senator Yari but other Senators raised their voices claiming a Point of Order is not admissible in this case.
0833: Senator Ishaku Abbo nominated nominated Senator Abdul Aziz Yari as Senate President.
0830: Senator Akpabio accepted his nomination.
0823: Senator Akpabio is nominated by Senator Ali Ndume who reads the biography of the former Akwa Ibom governor.
0825: Roll call done and inauguration has commenced with the nomination of Senator Godswill Akpabio as Senate President.
0822: The clerk of the Senate reads the roll call of Senators in the chamber.
0820: The clerk of the House of Representatives commenced proceedings in the House.
0812: Proceedings commenced at the Red Chamber.
Race For 10th NASS Leadership
In the just-concluded elections, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) secured over 170 of the 360 seats in the green chamber, the highest by any party. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) came second with over 100 seats, the Labour Party (LP) with over 35 seats, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) with about 20.
Many APC lawmakers have since indicated interest to emerge the next Speaker of the House. They include Benjamin Kalu, Ahmed Wase, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, Yusuf Gagdi, Aliyu Betara, Tajudeen Abbas, Abdulraheem Olawuyi, Sani Jaji, Princess Onuoha, amongst others.
Also, Senators Abdulaziz Yari, Orji Kalu, Godswill Akpabio have also showed interest in becoming the next Senate President after Ahmad Lawan.
However, the APC officially zoned the Senate President to the South-South (Akpabio) Deputy Senate President to the North-West, Barau Jibrin. The party also zoned the Speaker position to the North-West (Abass), and Deputy Speaker to the South-East (Kalu).
Many APC hopefuls rejected the party’s position and called for a review of the formula to cover the North Central geopolitical zone and not two positions for the North-West but the party chieftains continue to argue that the North-West gave the President the highest vote and therefore deserves to be compensated.
