A combination of efforts by the presidency and some former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors especially the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, to beat the last minute efforts by the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, to frustrate emergence of Godswill Akpabio as the President of the Senate on Tuesday.
Akpabio secured 63 votes to beat his closest challenger Abdul-Aziz Yari, former Governor of Zamfara State, who scored 46 votes to emerge the winner.
The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has 59 senators-elect while the opposition lawmakers are 50.
Akpabio needed a simple majority of 55 to emerge the winner in the 109-member red chamber.
Negotiations for Yari to step down since Akpabio was preferred by President Bola Tinubu and the APC leadership failed as he insisted on contesting.
The opposition political party leadership encouraged him with the PDP particularly assuring him of “total votes.” The PDP had before the election promised that it would reveal its choice on the floor of the red chamber during election.
However, Akpabio had his last minute visit on Monday night to the presidential villa where he met with the president for the final push before the election.
The Northern Elders Forum, NEF, on its part, concluded their plans, staging a press conference on Monday urging senators-elect and members-elect to vote their conscience.
They had mobilised votes for Yari in their bids to ensure the Senate president came from a different region.
Tinubu is from the South.
NEF in their press conference berated Vice President Kashim Shettima over what it called “attempts to impose principal officers on the 10th Assembly.”
But whatever NEF threw into the race, Wike alongside former governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, and former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, among others ensured that votes in their states were cast in favour of Akpabio.
In Rivers State, this paper confirmed the three PDP senators, voted for Akpabio.
Only two votes could be confirmed to have come from Ebonyi State, including a vote from Umahi, who won his election on February 25.
While the two senators from Edo State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, including Oshiomhole voted Akpabio, the PDP senators joined his colleagues to vote Yari.
The Abuja senator on the platform of the Labour Party was also confirmed to have voted for Akpabio.
The Two senators on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in Nasarawa State also voted for Akpabio.
It was not clear who then PDP Senator-elect, Alhaji Musa Galadima voted for.
Akpabio secured all three votes including the vote from Kwankwaso’s New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP in Kano State.
As of Monday evenings there were negotiations deep into the early hours of Tuesday morning, the D-Day with a senator saying, “we didn’t sleep.”
To ensure there was no repeat of the 2015 election into the Senate, the presidency provided the necessary assistance to the senators-elect rooting for Akpabio to be ferried from their hotel to the Senate chamber as early as 7:30 am.
In 2015, although the APC was in the majority, its preferred candidate, Ahmad Lawan, lost out to opposition-backed senator Bukola Saraki, who emerged the winner.
It was gathered that Tinubu’s direct involvement using the former PDP governors ensured a massive vote to thwart any bid to repeat the Saraki saga.
To confuse the opposition parties, the time for election was moved in the last minutes to 8 am from the 10am earlier fixed.
A senator loyal to Akpabio said it was to beat any “trap or momentum the opposition had. We took them by surprise.”
Although voting was conducted through the secret ballot as provided in the Rule of the Senate, this paper gathered that the 17 votes Akpabio secured from the opposition came from Akwa Ibom, his state; Rivers, one PDP vote from Sokoto being held by then Senator-elect, Aminu Tambuwal, to confirm his victory.
Two other votes in Sokoto are being held by the APC.
It was also gathered that the three senators-elect on the platform of the PDP from Osun State leaned towards Akpabio and may have voted in his favour like almost all senators from the South, who shared a feeling that the 2015/2019 power sharing in the APC was replicated.
In 2015, the president and Senate President were from the North. It was repeated in 2019.
