The nominations of former Niger Delta Affairs Minister Godwill Akpabio and Abbas Tajudeen, who are both being considered for the top positions at the National Assembly, were “not set in stone,” according to All Progressives Congress (APC) national publicity secretary Felix Morka.
He claimed that because every party member is allowed to run for political office, the party leadership’s suggestion to select Akpabio and Abass might still be amended.
Read Also: Gombe Man Says He Has No Regrets Trekking For Buhari In 2015
Morka emphasised that consultations are still taking place despite the party nomination and added that the party’s decision to micro-zone the slots was made to reduce contention.
On the Channels Television show “Politics Today,” the APC Publicity Secretary stated that the party took into consideration certain very sound criteria to ensure that each area has a fair number of major officials of the National Assembly.
After several hours of deliberation on Monday, the APC suggested Akpabio and Tajudeen, who are currently the House of Representatives representatives for the Zaria Federal Constituency, as the potential Senate President and Speaker of the House, respectively.
It also announced the Senator representing Kano North Senatorial District, Barau Jibrin, and the current spokesman of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, as Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker of the House.
However, the APC spokesman maintained on Tuesday that national interest made the party microzone the SP seat to the South-South zone, where Akpabio represents, in order to refute accusations of favouritism.
He said;
The announcement made yesterday was the outcome of protracted consultations, engagement with the leaders, stakeholders including many of those who have expressed aspiration for these offices in the incoming tenth assembly.
I know what you said is true that typically parties may zone to regions and leave up the micro-level specification of suggestions, but that is one module.
We are the APC and we thought it necessary to actually go a step further because the field already as we see was already getting very heavy and just to reduce the scope of contentions and we thought to go a step further to actually.
Morka further insisted;
In our constitution, consensus is a mode for the selection of those who play whatever role or capacity. This means you can negotiate and consult where there is some level of disparity of what might be a preferred position for the party.
We are making a big deal out of this unnecessarily because, at the end of the day, the party is only offering ideas and suggestions looking at the big picture because when people aspire, they are blindsided by their aspirations and don’t quite the whole national interest but the party is in opposition to seeing things from that level.
