The 2015 presidential election has been won and lost. While the loser and incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is preparing to vacate the exalted seat of power at Aso Rock Villa come May 29, the winner and President-elect Mohammadu Buhari of the APC is warming up to take over the reins of power. But as the incoming APC administration prepares to assume its new status as the governing party, it appears to be grappling with the challenge of resolving the tussle over the zoning of top offices, especially in the National Assembly.

With the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, coming from the North-West and his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo from the South-West zones, the South-East zone was expected to produce either the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the APC-led federal administration, which begins May 29. However, the party did not win any senatorial seat, though it won only two House of Representatives seats in the South-East in the March 28 National Assembly elections out of the total seats in the zone.

Consequently, ahead of the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly session, some zonal chapters of the APC are already demanding that the positions be zoned to them. For instance, the North East zone has demanded that either of the positions be zoned to it as compensation for turning in large numbers of votes for the party during the presidential and National Assembly elections.

There are also speculations that the APC leadership would zone the positions to the North Central and South-South zones where former governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki, and the Senate Minority Leader, George Akume, a former governor of Benue State, are said to have begun positioning themselves for the office of the Senate President should the party leadership decide in favour of the zone.

The squabble over the zoning of key positions in the APC led government appears to be lingering as a meeting of senior chieftains of the party called to resolve the impasse ended in a deadlock last Wednesday, a development which some elements within the APC believe is due to the hijacking of the process by some power blocs.

The two lists of zoning in circulation are similar except for the positions of Senate President and deputy senate president. They are swapped between the North Central and North East.

Some of the zoning arrangements in circulation include the following North-West: President, Deputy National Chairman (North) and Senate Leader. South-West: National Leader, Deputy National Chairman (South), Vice President, Speaker, House of Representatives, and Deputy Senate Leader. South-South: National Chairman, House Whip, Deputy Senate Chief Whip; South-East: Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and Secretary, Board of Trustees; North East: Chairman, Board of Trustees, National Secretary, Senate President or Deputy Senate President, House Leader or Deputy House Leader; North-Central: Senate President or Deputy Senate President, House Leader or Deputy House Leader. Sunday Trust learnt that zones considered to be at a disadvantage would be compensated with ministerial positions.

THE CONTENTIOUS POSITIONS:

The diatribe over the power sharing in the party is with regard to three juicy positions. First, is the position of the Senate President. The second is the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the third is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

Before the victory of the APC at the polls, Senator Bukola Saraki, had begun to lobby senators for their support for his ambition to become Senate President, Sunday Trust learnt. This may be as a result of the fact that when the late Yar'adua (who hailed from the North-West) was president, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoned the position of Senate President to North-West, and Senator David Mark had been on that chair since 2007. Now that the North-West has produced another president, it would be logical for the North-Central to still hold onto the third most important position of Senate President.

However, Bukola Saraki discovered that in his geopolitical zone, he's not the only qualified candidate for the job. Senator George Akume, another chieftain of the APC, who is apparently older in the party than Senator Saraki, threw his hat in the ring, asking for support. But the argument against both senators Saraki and Akume are that if the enator, who is from the Yoruba-speaking part of North-Central is elected as Senate President, then the positions of Vice President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Senate President would come from a common ethnic group. The argument against Senator Akume, on the other side, is that he comes from Benue State, which has been producing the Senate President since the Second Republic. Is the Senate Presidency the exclusive preserve of Benue State?, some critics wonder.

But the contention for the Senate Presidency was compounded by the vigorous way the North-East came up with a strong argument for it. The region claimed that it has never produced such a high-ranking principal officer in the National Assembly since 1999, especially because it had been in the opposition over the years. Several North-East State had been under the control of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) since 1999. With the victory of the APC, it would be an opportunity for the geopolitical region to produce Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives. For the position of Senate President, Senators Mohammed Ali Ndume, Bukar Abba and Danjuma Goje have shown interest.

Senator Bukar Abba explained it thus: "I really feel very bad. I feel we're being continuously neglected and marginalised. Apart from the late Tafawa Balewa days, North-East has never held any Senate or Speakership office at the national level. We once had a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. The ad hoc committee set up by my party recommended that the Senate President should still go back to the North-Central, giving us the position of Deputy Senate President. This is not fair."

Another National Assembly position that has come into contention is that of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, which, according to the speculated power-sharing document, has been zoned to the South-West. Those opposed to it wonder why the National Leader of the party, the Vice-President and the fourth most powerful position of the country, the Speaker, should all come from the South-West. Apart from the North-East, which is asking for either the Senate Presidency or the Speaker, no other geopolitical region is vehemently asking for that slot. The North-East has Rep Yakubu Dogara, from Bauchi State, as a major contender for the position.

In the South-West, four members of the House of Representatives are positioning themselves for the job from Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun States.

A competent source disclosed to Daily Trust correspondent that the leadership of the party at the South West have already started meeting to screen some candidates which will be presented to the national leadership of the party for approval before final nomination to the APC caucus at the National Assembly. It was, however, gathered that four APC lawmakers penciled down by the South West leaders for the national leadership to pick one are Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos State: Surulere I Federal Constituency), Samuel Olusegun Williams representing Abeokuta South Federal Constituency, Hon. Dada Awoleye (Ibadan North Federal Constituency and Ajibola Famurewa Israel (Osun State: Atakumosa / East/ West & Ilesa East /West Federal Constituency). Gbajabiamila was elected to the House in 2003. His constituents returned him in 2007 and 2011, and at the last National Assembly election. While Gbajabiamila's name resonates high among the contenders, the issue of the Vice President-elect, Prof Yemi Osinbajo who many believe is using a Lagos ticket may still keep the contest open. Though Osinbajo hails from Ogun state, he has had all his political career in Lagos State which makes many see him as a Lagos politician. But the national leadership of the party holds the ace to determine the preferred candidate.

There is also a debate over the ceding of the all-important position of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to the South-East, considering the fact that the APC’s performance in that geopolitical region was very dismal. Apart from Imo State, where APC frustrated PDP's massive outing at the polls, the other four South-East states didn't vote enthusiastically for the APC. Why should the South-East be given the juicy position of SGF, which will control all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government it is being asked?

HOW THE PARTY LEADERS WOULD DECIDE WHO GETS WHAT

An insider in the APC told our reporter that the power-sharing is not seen from the point of view of the six geopolitical zones, but from the positions of the legacy parties that formed the APC. The parties included the Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change and the ANPP. The other blocs that joined the three were a state of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors who joined the party later. The source explained it thus, "The Congress for Progressive Change has produced the President. The Action Congress of Nigeria has produced the Vice President.

The next big party in the Alliance is the ANPP. What should the government give to the ANPP? It's for this reason that the position of SGF is being allocated to the South-East, where the former National Chairman of the ANPP, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, hails from. That slot is not for the South-East, per se. It's from the ANPP."

The APC chieftain added that, "You should realise that the leaders of the legacy parties determined who got what. The old CPC was led by Buhari, who is president-elect. The old ACN was led by Tinubu, who brought Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Vice President. Now, it's the leader of the old ANPP, who is being considered for the position of SGF."

A chieftain of the APC, Mr Osita Okechukwu, has expressed optimism that the President-elect, retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari will seamlessly handle all issues arising from the sharing of positions ahead of the inauguration day. Okechukwu said Buhari's belief in hard work, social justice and equity would assist him in the task ahead, stressing that "GMB is a systems person and would want the leadership of the party to not only be given the benefit of doubt; but to follow the due process"

He said, "Position sharing in the APC is not crisis per crisis, rather it is an outcome of the victory from an amalgam of various tendencies which stimulated the gracious March 28, 2015 victory.

"Naturally, what pundits dubbed crisis of sharing in the APC is nothing but how to harmonize the contending tendencies which gave birth to the formation of our great party viz:- old members of the defunct ANPP, the ACN, the CPC and factions of the APGA and the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and last but not the least the five governors of the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP).

"There is nothing new or an aberrational in the circumstance we find ourselves. After all, we have over six weeks before the hand-over date. Politics has been variously defined by scholars like Professor Harold Lasswell as who gets what, when and how or allocation of resources by some scholars is what is afoot.

"It means that our reverred president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) is like a polygamous father, with children from different wives. A polygamous household in this instance has to be managed in such a manner that it will be to whom according to need and talent, without the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which stipulates that each state must produce a minister and all other offices must be equitably shared. "In sum, as one who has been with GMB for over a decade, I am confident that he will navigate the water seamlessly. This is what one can decipher as what pundits dub crisis and it is not. As stated before we have more than six weeks before the hand-over note."

ALL EYES NOW ON PRESIDENT-ELECT BUHARI

Dr Umar Ardo, a former governorship aspirant and PDP stakeholder, said the APC is having a stalemate over zoning of key positions because the party is an amalgam of strange bedfellows.

"I am not surprised that the APC is having this stalemate because the party is an amalgam of strange bedfellows mainly because of its infiltration by elements whose main interest is to secure positions in the polity", Ardo said.

He cautioned that such elements should not create problems for the party and the polity on account of their self-interests, saying: "Of course there should be zoning, but in so doing consideration should be given to those elements who added real electoral value to the party's victory. What I mean is that there are those whose zones or states Buhari would've won with or without them being in the same party with him - he did it severally before. But there are those whose entry into the APC gave real victory of their zones or states to Buhari for the first time; without whom the APC would not have won.

"My advice is that more consideration be given to the latter group while the former group should be circumspect in their demands and insistence because while they are needed and appreciated, they are not crucial", he said.

According to Ardo, zoning should be adopted at the point of victory and not before because "you don’t count your chicks before they are hatched; so I think now is the right time to do what is being done. The only thing is that it should be done rightly."

On whether it is proper for the country to have the positions of VP, Senate President and Speaker of Reps as Yoruba speaking, Ardo who prides himself as a strong moral voice in the Nigerian polity said: "It is not because it will mean federal character as enshrined in our constitution is not strictly adhered to." Is it possible for the Senate President to emerge from the PDP? Ardo said it is possible but it is not likely because "if it happens, it is like the APC has won a marathon tournament but collapsed and died on arrival."

As it stands, the cold war in the party over power sharing is leading to speculations that the APC could lose that position to the PDP. With the outpouring of praises for the outgoing Senate President David Mark for his mature leadership in the last eight years, it is speculated that the PDP could put him forward as a contender for the plum job. If the entire 49 PDP senators vote for him and his supporters infiltrate aggrieved APC members, it is possible for David Mark to retain the exalted seat in the Upper Chamber.

Senator Abba prescribes the solution to the impasse thus: "Whatever it is, I understand the recommendation is with the President-elect. He can override, change and return it to us. Whatever the party or the president-elect decides, at the end of the day, there will be elections, and it's the senators and the House of Representatives members that would decide who gets what. The final say is with the leadership of the National Assembly, not the party."