…Minority to fight for Senate juicy c’ttees as a bloc
…Ranking senators, 12 ex-govs push for Grade A c’ttees
AHEAD of the composition of special and standing committees in the 10th Senate, intense lobby for the juicy ones has commenced among senators.
This is even as the minority caucus has resolved to fight for chairmanship of the juicy committees as a bloc.
The fight for who chairs the 63 standing committees has become tensed, with the issue of ranking, party affiliation, loyalists, former governors and close associates shaping the composition.
Though the fight for who chairs the nine special committees and 63 others has been outside the National Assembly but with the resumption of senators from recess, intense politicking lobbying, intrigues and nocturnal meetings have reached a cresecndo.
It will be recalled that Senator Godswill Akpabio emerged president of the Senate on Tuesday, June 13, having scored 63 votes to defeat the former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Abdulaziz Yari (APC, Zanfara West), who polled 46 votes.
The lobby is more intensed for chairmanship of such committees as Appropriations, Services, Downstream Petroleum Sector, Upstream Petroleum Sector, Banking, Insurance and other financial institutions.
Others include Army, Defence, Finance, Navy, Niger Delta Affairs, Customs, Excise and Tariff, Gas, Works, Foreign Affairs, Health, and Power.
Also, all the parties in the opposition have resolved to act as a bloc with regard to securing the chairmanship of juicy committees.
According to the opposition political parties, the decision to act as a bloc was taken to forward their demands to the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who chairs the selection committee to enable him see and address the matter as a collective and very serious one, rather than individual negotiation that may not yield results.
Vanguard gathered that this assignment was given to the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Simon Nwadkwon (PDP, Plateau North), and other minority leaders to handle during the Thursday, July 6 meeting.
A source told Vanguard that at the meeting held in Room 221 of the new Senate wing, a ranking senator from the North-East geo-political zone of the country told his colleagues that if results must be achieved with regard to getting chairmanship positions into Grade A committees, the minority caucus must go with list of committees as a bloc, instead of individuals going to lobby for them.
According to the source, the suggestion was agreed on unanimously by the senators as the minority caucus was immediately mandated to carry out the assignment with other minority leadership, who are also members of the selection committee.
The source said: “At the meeting of the minority caucus, a ranking senator and one who has been around, advised us that we should make a bloc demand for chairmanship of committees, instead of going about lobbying as individuals, which may not achieve anything and it was accepted by all of us and the minority leader and his team were then mandated to carry it out.”
At the moment, ruling APC has 59 senators; the PDP 36; Labour Party, LP, eight; New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, two; Social Democratic Party, SDP, two; All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and the Young Progressives Party, YPP, one each.