• Tallen wants female as Deputy Speaker
• Independent candidacy: Senate directs Clerk to transmit bill to Buhari
As inauguration of the 10th National Assembly draws closer, Senator Godswill Akpabio has called on aggrieved senators to accept the decision of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that ceded the seat of Senate President to him.
Speaking when he led over 40 senators from across various political parties to pay a visit to the Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC), at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, he argued that the decision to endorse him was in line with quest to entrench fairness and justice in the polity.
Accompanied by Senator Barau Jibrin, the preferred pick of the party for Deputy Senate President, Akpabio assured that he would ensure success of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
Justifying the party’s decision, he said: “The South-South part of the country last had a Senate President in 1979, about 44 years ago. And our brothers from the South East, with very capable people, have held the position since 1999 for about eight years, also producing the Deputy Senate President for 12 years, till the current dispensation. The North Central produced David Mark and Bukola Saraki, with Mantu as Deputy Senate President for 12 years.
“Since the President is from the South and the Vice from the North, it is right that the Senate President should come from the South.”
Some of the senators-elect that accompanied Akpabio to the secretariat include: Gbenga Daniel, Ibrahim Gaidam, Solomon Olamilekan, Opeyemi Bamidele, Mohammed Tahir Moguno, Idiate Adebule, Tokunbo Abiru, Ipalebo Harry, Aziz Musa, Titus Zam, Darlington Nwokocha and Neda Imazuen.
But Zamfara West senator-elect and Senate President aspirant, Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari, said APC’s zoning formula for leadership positions in the 10th Senate conflicts with the 1999 Constitution (as amended) because it breaches the federal character principle.
Yari said the nation’s law book only provides for federal character in sharing of offices and not religion.
Recall that the ruling party, last week, anointed Akpabio (South-South) and Barau Jibrin (North-West) as Senate President and Deputy.
The former Zamfara State governor and one-time member of the House of Representatives, who spoke on Tuesday, while featuring as a guest on a television programme, said the zoning formula is unconstitutional and unfair to Northern Nigeria, as all heads of the three arms of government would be southerners.
Also, ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, has stressed the need for a female lawmaker to be elected as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The minister, who spoke at launch of the 50-50 women advocacy group by WomenAid Collective (WACOL) in Abuja, regretted that women still face discrimination and bias.
While emphasising the power of women-led advocacy and the vital role it plays in shaping society, the minister observed that Nigerian women have been at the forefront of advocating social change.
She stated: “With the poor representation of women, we want to ensure that we have a woman as Deputy Speaker to help push our case.”
Meanwhile, in line with provisions of the Authentication Act, the Senate, yesterday, directed the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA) to transmit Constitution Alteration Bill No. 58 to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent
The bill seeks to provide for independent candidacy in presidential, governorship, national and state Assembly and local government council elections.
The Clerk was also directed to transmit to the President, Constitution Alteration Bill No. 46, which seeks to include presiding officers of the National Assembly in membership of the National Security Council.
The two proposals were part of alteration bills transmitted to state Houses of Assembly for concurrence last year, but not part of the 35 that secured the required approval of 24 out of 36 state assemblies.
Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, in a motion during yesterday’s plenary, told his colleagues that Gombe State House of Assembly approved the Constitution Alteration Bills No. 46 and 58 and forwarded its resolution to the National Assembly.
Omo-Agege, who is Chairman of the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Constitution Review, said, with approval of the Gombe Assembly, the bills on independent candidacy and inclusion of National Assembly presiding officers in the National Security Council membership have met provisions of Section 9(2) of the Constitution for passage.
