The South-east will come out empty-handed in the new Government that will be inaugurated on 29th May, 2023. The Zone is not in the calculation to hold any top position, at least, the first three top positions for now, it has lost the first four top positions, and will not head any arm of Government.
The Presidency is headed by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. The Vice President is Kashim Shettima, and now the Senate President has just slipped from the Zone’s hands and so did the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Senate President is going to a South-Southerner, Senator Godswill Akpabio, for whom the outgoing Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr Dave Umahi, has just stepped down for. Umahi revealed that he stepped down for Akpabio because the President-elect has endorsed Akpabio for the position and appealed to him, Umahi, to step down.
The office of the Speaker of the House will go to Honourable Tajudeen Abass from Kaduna State.
Umahi, after failing, woefully, in his bid to clinch the Presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, set his eyes on the Senate. He managed to clinch the ticket in controversial circumstances, but won overwhelmingly on February 25 at the General Elections.
On winning, he set his eyes on the Senate Presidency. He seriously lobbied for it, including lobbying the President-elect, Tinubu.
But all the hopes and struggles have come to a sudden halt. Both his Party and the President-elect have chosen Akpabio over him.
Said Umahi on Friday: “By yesterday (Thursday), I met the President-elect on his invitation. He said he is already committed, and said, ‘please, hold on’. And I have accepted, and I stepped down for Akpabio. He is my concensus Candidate.”
Umahi and Akpabio have the same story, almost, to tell in their journey to the APC. Both were foundation members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Both won the Governorship seats of their States, twice, under tye PDP. But both, inexplicably, dumped the PDP for the APC.
While Akpabio dumped the PDP for the APC after he climbed on its back to, also, win his first tenure as a Senator, and was appointed the Senate Minority Leader, Umahi dumped the PDP midway into his second term in office as Governor.
In their mission to the APC, Akpabio has come out smelling of roses.
Umahi dumped the PDP, allegedly, because he wanted to be the President and felt it was better for him under the APC. But, he failed. He has also failed in his bid for the Senate President. Yet, unlike Akpabio, he delivered the Governorship seat of Ebonyi State to the APC. Akpabio’s Akwa Ibom State is PDP. Yet, he got it.
Umahi lost the Senate Presidency seat the same way the Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, lost it, even with his serious lobbying. Orji was, also, a two-term Governor under the PDP before he dumped the PDD for the APC.
It is alleged that Kalu lost because he has a case against him at the Economic Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. But so does Akpabio. As recently as a week ago, the EFCC was on the neck of Akpabio, and, asked him to come in for interrogation.
Akpabio is the immediate past Minister for Niger Delta. Like Umahi, he aspired to the office of the President, but was smart enough to step down for Tinubu when he saw he didn’t have the delegates to make a headway. Umahi was not that smart to read the handwriting on the wall.
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