Senators-elect bribing APC NWC to jettison zoning for NASS leadership, North West VC Salihu Lukman alleges

North West Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman has accused some senators-elect from the party of trying to buy their way into becoming senate president.

In a statement he wrote titled; “Cash-and-carry contest for leadership of 10th National Assembly”, Lukman said the concerned senators-elect have perfected plans to ensure the party does not zone the positions as is the custom.

He also accused them of trying to disregard the country’s unity by attempting to install a Muslim Senate President despite already having a Muslim president-elect and vice president-elect.

He said: “Unfolding developments around the contest for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly is quite worrisome. Apart from the clear disregard for national unity and outright disrespect for Nigerians, especially the persons of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sen. Kashim Shettima, being the President-elect and Vice-President-elect respectively, some of the aspiring candidates for the positions of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives are neither concerned about the security and well-being of Nigeria nor are they in anyway disturbed about factors that could erode the electoral viability of our party – APC.

“These are aspiring candidates for these positions, two of them Muslims from North-West aspiring for the position of Senate President and one of them from North-East aspiring for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, who are desperately mobilising support in unethical manner without any regard or respect to the party and its leadership.

“Certainly, these aspirants know that there is very high probability that once the party is allowed to finalise the processes of zoning positions of leadership, the probability is high that these positions would be zoned to other sections of the country outside theirs. In order therefore to force their way and weaken the party, they are proceeding with mobilising support for their aspirations in a very unethical manner.

“Some of them, including another aspirant for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives from the North-West have sent bags of rice and sugar to members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC). There are speculations that some of them are bribing party leaders with huge amounts of money to stop the party from zoning positions.

“There are also the disturbing reports from House of Representatives members-elect that one aspirant for the position of Speaker from North-East apart from bribing members-elect with huge amounts of money is also offering jeeps to members-elect if they will commit to electing him as the Speaker. This has reduced the contest for the leadership of 10th National Assembly to Cash-and-Carry.

“To say the least, this is both disappointing and worrisome. How can APC elected representatives descend so low as to be using unethical methods of cash-and-carry to mobilise support for their aspirations? The two Senators-elect who are being alleged to be involved in such unethical methods are both Muslims from the North-West. Conscious that APC has already produced two Muslims as President-elect and Vice President-elect, it should be very clear that any person whose aspiration for the position of Senate President being the number three highest ranking position in Federal Government, who is a Muslim will not mean well for Nigeria and will be working to undermine the electoral viability of APC as a political party.

“Any Muslim aspiring for the position of Senate President has no respect for both the constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the APC. This is because Chapter II, Section 14(3) of the Nigerian constitution clearly outlined that ‘the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.

” With two Muslims already elected to be sworn in as President and Vice President of the Federal Republic on May 29, any attempt to consider another Muslim as Senate President will promote the dominance of Muslims in the Federal Government and will be injurious to national unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as a sovereign entity, which must not be allowed.

“In addition, any Muslim Senator-elect aspiring for the position of Senate President is disrespectful to the leaders of the country and the party, including President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu. However considered, the emerging risks threatening the peaceful co-existence of Nigeria, however manifest, will squarely be interpreted based on the actions or inactions of the political leadership of the country in the persons of President Buhari as the current leader and Asiwaju Tinubu as his successor.

“Asiwaju Tinubu in his campaign document Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan for a Better Nigeria outlined that ‘Our objective is to foster a new society based on shared prosperity, tolerance, compassion, and the unwavering commitment to treat each citizen with equal respect and due regard’, all aspiring candidates for both Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 10th National Assembly seeking to emerge through cash-and-carry methods clearly are not committed to the success of Asiwaju-led Federal Government. If anything, they are only seeking to destroy our society and block the government of Asiwaju Tinubu from achieving its objective of fostering a new society.”

He accused the party leadership under the National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu of already giving credence to such moves.

He added: “With all these worrisome developments, the passive and almost unresponsive calmness of members of the APC NWC led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu is giving credence to the speculation that some of these cash-and-carry aspirants for leadership position in the 10th National Assembly may have bribe the NWC not to initiate actions to zone positions in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.

“Otherwise, why is the NWC unable to convene meetings of organs of the party to invoke Article 13.4(vi) of the APC constitution, which directs the NWC to ‘propose electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections to party offices at all levels, and procedure for selecting Party candidates for elective offices?

“It is very disturbing and highly unacceptable that something as sensitive as electoral guidelines and regulations for electing leaders of the 10th National Assembly will be left to public speculations. At a time when opposition political parties are practically taken over by combinations of religious bigots and political opportunists who will go to any length to manufacture lies aimed at manipulating gullible citizens to support them, we can’t allow the contest for leadership of the 10th National Assembly to continue unregulated. Everything must be done to mobilise all committed party leaders and members to call all APC elected representatives aspiring for positions in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly to order.”