APC Zones Senate President To North Central As Speaker Will Emerge From North East

The national leaders and national caucus of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) have officially zoned the office
of the Senate President in the 8th Senate to the North central
geo-political zone, while the Speaker of the House of
Representatives was zoned to the North-east geo-political
zone.
A source at the APC meeting which lasted till the wee-hours
of Friday told THISDAY that the party leaders accepted in
principle a prototype office sharing formula that would
accommodate all vested interests within the party.
The source said: “After deft negotiations, the leaders agreed
to cede the position of the Senate President to the North-
central and that of the Speaker of the House of
Representatives to the North-east. They also endorsed a
zoning arrangement that would see the South-west
producing the Deputy Senate President and South-south,
Deputy Speaker.”
With the agreement yesterday, the current minority leader in
the Senate, George Akume from Benue State and Senator
Bukola Saraki from Kwara State are expected to engage each
other in a fierce contest for the Senate Presidency.
It was learnt that the position of the Speaker was earlier
allotted to the South-west but had to be moved to North-
east following a strong lobby by leaders from the zone who
argued that such arrangement was necessary to compensate
them for the massive support for the party during the
election.
Apart from the sharing arrangement for the principal
positions, the APC meeting which had personalities like the
former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubu and some governors in
attendance also considered the issue of ministerial
appointments.
Also, the APC leaders zoned the office of the Chairman of its
Board of Trustees (BoT) to Adamawa State, where the former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar is set to clinch the position
that was hitherto held by the former governor of Osun State
and former national chairman of the party, Bisi Akande.
The source hinted further that the party zoned the office of
the Majority Leader of the Senate to the South-west.
However, South-east did not get any position in the current
allocation but according to a top notch APC member, the
zone will be compensated by other appointments to ensure
some balance and equity. In all the eight senatorial seats in
the zone, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won all the
seats. This has made it impossible for the zone to aspire for
any principal office in the senate.
The same thing happened in the zone for the House of
Representatives. No single member of the House of
Representatives from the zone is from the APC. PDP won all
the National Assembly seats in both arms of the National
Assembly. In fact, in the Presidential Election, the APC did
not score up to 15 percent in any of the states in the
southeast.
Another source at the Abuja meeting said the APC chieftains
could not however conclude deliberations on the ministerial
appointments as it was decided that stakeholders in the
states and zonal levels should go back to the areas to hold
consultations on the matter.
It was resolved that the state chapters of the party would
each nominate three persons for ministerial consideration
and are to submit same to the party through the Vice
Chairmen and Deputy National Chairmen on or before
Tuesday next week.
The source added that another meeting of the party
leadership is scheduled to hold on Tuesday where they hope
to harmonize issues and finalize discussions on the
recommendations to be presented to the National Executive
Committees (NEC) of the party.
“While the President- elect, General Muhammadu Buhari had
asked the party to discuss the issue of ministerial
appointments and to advise him as appropriate, he has
insisted on retaining the transition committee list. Buhari
had in choosing members of the transition committee made
sure that each of them is tested expert in the various sectors
where they will serve. He was said to be very conscious of
their level of integrity and honesty,” added the source.
A top member of the APC who spoken in anonymity, said:
“All the positions said to have been shared are yet to be
firmed. Nothing can be confirmed until the final meeting next
week.” He advised that all reports about sharing of positions
should be disregarded until next week when a final decision
would be taken.