The Nigerian Senate will resume sitting today after a 19-day break following the inauguration of the 10th Senate.
The first two plenary sessions focused on the election of the presiding officers and the constitution of a Welfare Committee to allocate offices and seats to senators.
Today’s main agenda will see the allocation of seats and the appointment of principal officers, such as the Senate leader, deputy Senate leader, chief whip, and deputy whip.
The opposition parties will also decide on their consensus candidate for the positions of minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip, and deputy minority whip.
The major contenders for the position of Senate leader are Ali Ndume and Opeyemi Bamidele, both APC members, while Aminu Tambuwal and Seriake Dickson are among the top contenders for the position of minority leader.
Concerns have been raised about the alleged plan to impose a minority leader on the senators, with the aim of weakening the strength of the opposition parties.
The APC holds the majority with 59 senators, while the opposition parties collectively have 50 members.
The Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPDN), has urged opposition senators not to elect Tambuwal as minority leader, accusing him of coercing other minority senators for his own selfish reasons.
National Secretary of the group, Francis Wainwei, who addressed the press on behalf of his colleagues, said the former Sokoto governor is coercing other minority senators to become the minority leader for “selfish and destructive reasons”.
“We totally reject the scheming of Tambuwal and co, geared towards high-jacking the leadership of the minority parties in the Senate for selfish and destructive purposes,” he said.
“Tambuwal should not be allowed to emerge as the minority leader of the Senate because of his antecedents of selfish and acrimonious politics.”
But Tambuwal’s spokesperson, Muhammad Bello, dismissed the allegation, stating that his principal is a democrat who would not force himself into a leadership position.
“Perhaps, it is the figment of imagination of these people. How can you coerce somebody to vote for you? It is even the party caucus that determines the position. All you can do is to lobby and try to cajole them to support you,” Bello said.
The 10th Senate was inaugurated on 13th June, with Godswill Akpabio as the Senate President and Barau Jibrin as the Deputy Senate President.