By Chimaobi Afiauwa
With a few days before the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is believed to have gotten a better insight into the tussle for the leadership positions and presiding officers of the next assembly and could be reconsidering his options after the endorsement of preferred aspirants by the ruling APC’s NWC had since thrown elected Senators of the party into a disagreement.
This comes after the President met with the outgoing Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila, respectively, yesterday behind closed doors.
Though details of the meeting were still sketchy, MUK TV reliably gathered that the President was given the true situation of the crisis rocking the zoning formula by the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
On the crisis rocking the choice of presiding officers for the 10th National Assembly, a reliable source disclosed how the Senate President informed the President that all was not well.
Recall that APC had zoned the Senate Presidency to the South-South, with Akpabio from Akwa Ibom as the preferred aspirant, and the Speakership of the House of Representatives to the North-West, with Tajudeen from Kaduna as the preferred aspirant.
The party also settled on Barau from Kano in the North-West as Deputy Senate President and Kalu from Abia State in the South-East as Deputy Speaker.
President Tinubu’s meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly, the source said, was an eye-opener as the outgoing Senate President politely told the president that there is fire on the mountain.
According to the source, “Things are beginning to unfold gradually but unfortunately it appears things are getting altered to contain because even the meeting that the president held with the Senate President and the Speaker was an eye-opener to Mr. President.
“It was yesterday at the meeting that the president got to know that he was either misinformed or distorted pieces of information were handed to him in respect of the National Assembly leadership.
“If you observe, the Speaker [Gbajabiamila] is using the same method to mislead the President and twist the situation around him. In the same way, he sent out the endorsement of Akpabio and Abbass even before the president made up his mind.
“He has flown another flier to test the waters so that the president will be boxed into another corner.
“It is cheering that the Senate President boldly but politely told the president that there is fire on the mountain. He gave the man the real situation of things and even protested that he was excluded when the Speaker was putting permutations together in respect of the National Assembly leadership, of which he is Chairman.
“The Senate President was very truthful with the President that if things are allowed to go on the way they are, two dangerous scenarios await the APC. He said either APC loses the speakership to the opposition PDP if two APC aspirants run for speakership or the north corners both the speakership and senate presidency.
“So, all indications point to the fact that the issue of leadership scouting for the 10th assembly was largely mismanaged by the Speaker [Gbajabiamila] and his so-called trusted allies in the 9th Assembly.”
