From Fred Itua, Abuja
Ongoing cold war between the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 elections, Atiku Abubakar and leader of the rebellious G-5 governors, Nyesom Wike, has escalated, as the race for the position of the minority leader hots up.
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, former Speaker of the House of Representatives and former governor of Sokoto State is the favoured candidate for the position of the Senate minority leader.
Tambuwal, former ally of Wike until the 2022 presidential primary of the PDP is being supported by Atiku, the National Working Committee of the PDP, former PDP governors in the Senate and a handful of other opposition senators.
However, there are fears that a repeat of what happened in the House of Representatives in 2019 when the PDP nominated Kingsley Ogundu Chinda as minority leader, but the then Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila of the All Progressives Congress (APC) named Ndudi Elumelu instead, may occur.
Unlike in 2019 and 2015 when the PDP had a commanding figure in the Minority Caucus, the last general elections threw up other political parties.
Though the PDP controls the larger number in the Minority Caucus, other political parties are expected to be represented in the leadership configuration.
The membership configuration showed that APC has 59 senators, PDP 36, Labour Party 8, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) 2, Social Democratic Party (SDP) 2, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) 1 and Young Peoples Party (YPP) one.
Daily Sun gathered that the Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, Wike and members of the opposition who worked for the former Akwa Ibom State governor’s victory are plotting to have one of their own as minority leader.
Prior to Akpabio’s emergence, leaders of the PDP, including the National Working Committee (NWC) had covertly instructed their members to vote for Abdulaziz Yari.
Leaders like Atiku, Bukola Saraki, Tambuwal, former governors like Seriake Dickson, Adamu Aliero, among others openly worked for Yari.
On the flipside, some of PDP senators ignored the instruction from their party and worked for Akpabio’s emergence.
As a pay back, Daily Sun gathered that the opposition senators who worked for Akpabio, drawn from the PDP, LP, NNPP, SDP,APGA andYPP are rooting for Wike’s choice for the position of the minority leader, Agom Jarigbe.
A ranking senator and close ally of Wike, who defeated Ben Ayade in the February 25 National Assembly elections, represents Cross River North.
Wike who met with Akpabio last week in Abuja, Daily Sun learnt, is also meeting with other senators from the opposition to frustrate plans by the PDP NWC to produce the next minority leader.
One of the senators who attended one of the meetings, said it would be unfair for a senator who opposed the emergence of the current leadership of the Red Chamber.
He said though the minority leader is expected to play the role of the opposition, a known rival would not be allowed to lead the Caucus.
“Atiku and Wike have renewed their hostilities. Wike appears to have won the first round in the House of Representatives. It is too early to tell if he replicate the same feat in the Senate.
“Opposition senators who supported Akpabio are in the majority. So, we won’t allow a few who opposed him to gain those positions. We’ll pick one from the members. PDP will not pick our leader for us,” he said.