From Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Abuja
Former military leaders and influential traditional rulers across the country have waded into the leadership crisis rocking the yet-to-be inaugurated 10th National Assembly.
Sunday Sun gathered in Abuja, yesterday, that top elder statesmen from the North and leading traditional rulers from the region and the Southwest have weighed in to stem the tide of bad blood growing among the legislators and further polarisation of the country on ethnic and religious lines.
At present, the tussle has pitched the loyalists of the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari, against those of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, splintering the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) into legacy camps.
There have been reports of a silent war raging between the two camps following the micro-zoning of Senate President to Senator Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State.
The battle has also set the legislators from the six geo-political zones of the country against one another and widening lines of ethnicity and religion among the senators-elect and their contemporaries in the House of Representatives, a development now spreading to the various parts of the country and further generating bad blood amongst Nigerians.
Worried by this development, the northern statesmen including two former military heads of state and some first class traditional rulers in the North and Southwest were said to have intervened, speaking to ranking and influential senators to douse the tension and let the country move forward.
From the North, there are three contenders for the Senate presidency, namely: Abubakar Yari, Jibrin Barau, and Sani Musa, while from the South are Osita Izunaso, Orji Uzor Kalu and Godswill Akpabio. There are also unconfirmed reports that a former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomole, may join the race.
A Senator-elect who was privy to the consultations told Sunday Sun that the elder statesmen have reached out to key senators, particularly those from the North, to place Nigeria’s unity and national cohesion above self in the election of the Assembly leadership expected to hold next month.
In their talks with the senators, the source, who disclosed that he had personally honoured the invites of the two retired Generals and those of two traditional rulers from the North-central and Southwest on the matter told our correspondent that the major appeal was for the North not to use their higher numerical strength to emasculate the Senate in the contest for its leadership.
“Instead, they appealed to us to emulate the APC governors from the Northern Nigeria who in the most patriotic manner gave all their support to the emergence of a Southern candidate for the party and did all within their powers for the victory of Bola Tinubu from the Southwest at the polls.
“They are talking to us, especially those that have declared interest in the presidency of the senate among us to drop their legitimate ambitions for the sake of unity, cohesion of Nigeria and support the Southern region in producing it,” the source said.
The Senator-elect, however, confirmed that the Northern Senators were not initially against the South producing the Senate president, but that they were piqued because of the way the President-elect unilaterally went for Senator Akpabio.
“But with the seriousness of the moves by these patriotic and highly respected statesmen and the esteemed traditional rulers, I see the major contender from the North, H.E Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari dropping the gauntlet and supporting a credible, vibrant and unblemished aspirant from the South.
“Apart from the manner he was chosen by the President-elect, the Northern Senators see an Akpabio-led Senate as a bad omen for the North, having been frontally and parochially against the North during the debate for resource control. We cannot trust his leadership. He will not protect the interest of the North.
“For the loyalists of the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, the choice of Senator Akpabio with a number of corruption allegations hanging on his neck would negate the achievements of the eight years of President Buhari on corruption,” he said.