Tinubu To Meet APC NWC, NASS Leadership Aspirants
The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, is set to meet with members of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and aspirants jostling for leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly.
Naija News reports that some of the aspirants had rejected the zoning formula for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly released by the leadership of the ruling party on May 28.
Recall that the APC NWC had picked Godswill Akpabio (Akwa-Ibom/South-South) for the President of the Senate; Jibrin Barau (Kano/North-West) for the Deputy President of the Senate; Tajudeen Abbas (Kaduna/North-West) for the Speaker, House of Representatives; and Benjamin Kalu (Abia/South-East) for the Deputy Speaker.
Speaking with The Punch on Saturday, an aide to the President-elect, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tinubu would meet the APC NWC members and all the aspirants today (Sunday) in order to douse the tension generated by the party’s endorsement of some of the aspirants.
The aide added that the former Governor of Lagos State might either endorse the sharing formula for the leadership positions in the Assembly or demand a review of the zoning arrangement.
According to The PUNCH, the APC Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, sent a message to Tinubu to return to the country as he was already losing grip of the 10th National Assembly leadership jostle due to his absence.
A source said: “Abdullahi Adamu was said to have sent words to him (Tinubu) on Thursday night that he was losing grip of the protests against the zoning issue, especially when Gbajabiamila reported the outcome of his encounter with the Reps-elect at Transcorp, a meeting that was attended by less than 80 Reps out of 113 that have appended their signatures. Some fraudulent Reps even appended fake signatures.”
Adamu’s message to Tinubu comes days after he told some aspirants in the Senate and the House separately protested at the party’s National Headquarters that a review of the zoning plan would be delayed till the return of Tinubu to the country.
Source – Naija News
Tinubu’s Cabinet: Muslims lobby president-elect for more ministers than Christians
Indications emerged last week that the jostle for inclusion in the cabinet of the next federal administration had intensified as some Muslims pleaded with President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give more ministerial appointments to members of their own faith than their Christian counterparts.
They begged Tinubu to give Muslims in Muslim-majority states at least four ministerial appointments per geo-political zone after his inauguration.
There are six states in each of the six geo-political zones viz South-South, South-West, North-Central, North-East and North-West.
Only the South-East has five states.
The 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that each of the 36 states of the federation must have one native in the federal cabinet.
Section 6, Part 1, Section 147 of the Constitution, titled, ‘Ministers of Federal Government’, says specifically: “3 – Any appointment under Subsection 2 by the President shall be in conformity with the provisions of Section 14 (3) of this Constitution: provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each state who shall be an indigene of such state”.
The implication of the Muslims’ lobby is that any geo-political zone where people of their own faith are in the majority, Muslims should have four Ministers in the Tinubu cabinet while Christians should be contented with two.
They listed affected states to include Taraba, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Bauchi, Kogi, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Niger, Kaduna, Kebbi and Lagos.
The lobby is coming on the heels of the controversy generated by the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which won the February 25, 2023 election.
Those in favour of the ticket had said what was important was the competence of the presidential candidate and his running mate while those in opposition said the development would embolden Muslim hardliners to try to Islamize the country.
Separately, the lobbyists made a case for a top job for the outgoing governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, in the Tinubu administration.
They initiatially wanted a ‘juicy job’ for the governor before changing their words to ‘top job’.
The Muslims, who spoke under the aegis of Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), made their case in a statement titled ‘MURIC to Tinubu: Give Muslims in Muslim-Majority States Four Ministers Each’
“As Nigeria warms up for the inauguration of a new administration under the able, tested and trusted leadership of President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we remind the incoming President and other Nigerians of past political marginalization of Muslims in Muslim-majority states since independence”, the statement signed by Professor Ishaq Akintola, MURIC Executive Director, said.
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