Senate: Unmasking dangerous plot against Tinubu

BY BALA GUSAU

Like the daylight, it has become crystal clear that Abdulaziz Yari and Orji Uzor Kalu with some anti-APC elements in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are hell-bent on frustrating the emergence of the candidates of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Senate presidency.

On Tuesday, the secret plot to frustrate the emergence of Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Barau Jibril as Senate President and Deputy respectively became clearer when Kalu, while addressing the Senate press corps announced his alliance with Yari to scuttle the emergence of the candidates of the President and APC.

While members of the APC and well-meaning Nigerians are working hard for the success of the new administration, the duo of Yari and Kalu, are throwing a spanner in the wheel of the government.

In their widest dream, they are plotting a repeat of the 2015 scenario when Senator Bukola Saraki with the support of the opposition lawmakers, emerged as the Senate President against the directive of the then President, Muhammadu Buhari, and the party.

Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, was the director-general of the campaign organisation of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan during his ill-fated presidential bid last year. It is still fresh in everybody’s memory how the camp of Lawan got the endorsement of a section of the presidency in the build-up to the presidential primary of the APC last year.

While working against the South’s bid for the presidency, Kalu mobilised for Lawan’s presidential bid. To the glory of God, Tinubu walloped the candidate of Kalu to emerge as the flag bearer of the ruling party and went ahead to win the general election.

To the chagrin of the progressives members of the APC and other Nigerians, Kalu has commenced another fight against Tinubu.

Kalu told newsmen on Tuesday that: “ In the coming days or weeks, our partnership will be unveiled, so we are in serious talks. I cannot deny it – Yari is a friend of mine and I’m his friend and we have decided to talk. “We have been speaking for the past four weeks and the result will be unveiled by our sponsors, he has his sponsors and I have my sponsors.”

Who are their sponsors? Perhaps, they are the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and former Senate president, Bukola Saraki. Also, checks around the two former governors have revealed that they are in the same boat. It would interest you to know that Yari, who owes his political ascendancy as a governor, chairman of Nigeria’s Governors Forum (NGF) and now senator-elect to APC, is working against his party.

Yet for some inexplicable reasons, the former governor seems not to appreciate all the party has done for him but is plotting to destroy the very platform that gave him and is still allowing him to remain politically relevant.

The APC as a party, in the bid to sanitize the race for the National Assembly leadership seats, has zoned the position of the Senate President to the South-south and the Deputy Senate President to the North-west, which means that every loyal party man or woman should comply with the directive to assist the party to achieve balance and inclusion.

The party did not stop at that but has gone ahead to zone the seats to certain senators and chose Akpabio for the Senate Presidency and current chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Jibrin Barau as Deputy Senate President.

Even as this has been accepted by the majority of APC senators-elect, Kalu and Yari and his co-travellers are trying to mutiny with their plot to frustrate Akpabio and Barau’s emergence. They will be disgraced, by God’s grace.

Gusau, a public affairs analyst, sent this piece from Abuja