10TH NASS: Tell aspirants to manage their ambitions, Tinubu begs traditional rulers

President Bola Tinubu wants traditional rulers across the country to join him in ensuring fair play in the emergence of the leadership of the 10th National Assembly next week.

Tinubu told representatives of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN) who visited him in Abuja that their input in managing democracy in the build-up to the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly was crucial.

Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, who also spoke yesterday on the coming election of the new leadership for the National Assembly, appealed to senators-elect to handle the country’s fragility with utmost care in picking their President.

The leadership of Labour Party (LP) is scheduled to meet this weekend to decide who the party’s incoming federal legislators should support for the positions of Senate President and deputy president as well as House of Representatives Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara declared yesterday that legislators from his state are firmly in support of the All Progressives Congress (APC) preferred choices of Chief Godswill Akpabio as Senate President and Tajudeen Abbas as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Tinubu, at his meeting with the traditional rulers led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Saad Abubakar, specifically urged the royal fathers to counsel their subjects interested in elective positions on the need to manage their ambitions and create harmony within the legislature.

He stressed that while he is prepared to work with any leader chosen by the federal lawmakers, the Nigeria project is of paramount importance to him.

“We have a democracy that we must manage. I need your help in managing that democracy,” he told them.

He added: “Summon our ambitious people that want to be officers of the house that we have only two chairs: Senate President, one chair, the Speaker, one chair.

“If there are six people struggling in the same environment, they will choke.

“So it’s only through your counsel, your responses to them that we can harmonise this and take off very well.

“To me, I can work with anyone. But the Nigerian project is of paramount importance to me. That’s why I’m here. Nigeria must survive. Nigeria must develop. Nigeria must make progress.”

He spoke against the background of the insistence of some legislators to go against the micro-zoning of the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives.

The Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, who appears to be on the same page with Tinubu on which part of the country should produce the Senate President this time around, appealed to senators-elect to handle the country’s fragility with utmost care as they elect their next President on Tuesday.

Clark in an open letter to the Senators-elect said the tension over who occupies what position in the 10th Senate was already over heating the polity and “hurting the fragile peace and unity we are currently having in our beloved country.”

He said while the division sparked by the race for the NASS leadership positions were not new in the country, the senators-elect should “handle this fragility with utmost care.

He said: “It is your duty as the legislative arm of government to produce during your term a united country where the citizens genuinely trust one another, regard themselves as equal citizens and as brothers and sisters.

“Our division is hindering us from taking our pride of place both in the African continent and globally.

“It is time to heal our land, and in so doing, what I expect of the 10th Senate is to give the position of Senate President to a Christian Senator from the southern part of the country.

“It is only fair, equitable and just, to do so. We have their Excellencies, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shetima as President and Vice President of the country, respectively. Both of them are Muslims.

“The Chief Justice of the Federation, Olukayode Ariwoola, is a Muslim. Making a Muslim the Senate President will be unacceptable to any discerning mind that thinks well of this country as it will mean that the three arms of government are all headed by Muslims.

“It is also to be noted that the person tipped to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives is equally a Muslim.”

He also reminded those agitating for another Northerner to pick the number three seat of how President Tinubu had to sacrifice the vice president slot in 2014.

“Nigerians and indeed those agitating for this unequal and unjust treatment to be meted out to Christians should remember what happened in 2014. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was to be the running mate to General Muhammadu Buhari, rtd, under the ticket of the All-Progressives Congress (APC).

“It was the same party leaders who objected to this arrangement on the grounds that a Muslim-Muslim ticket is not suitable for Nigeria. Sen. Tinubu listened to voice of reason and nominated Prof. Yemi Osinbajo for the position of the Vice President. What has changed now?

“Once again, I appeal to the 10th Senate that as they choose their leaders, should be directed by true sense of reasoning. The position should be given to a Christian southerner.

“I appeal to the northerners to look into their stand again. The Muslims need the Christians and the Christians need the Muslims. No one group should think that they can do it alone.

“Let us pray for a country where everybody and persons of all groups are equal and positions evenly distributed.”