Amid criticism, Akpabio expands consultations and wins support from 68 senators

• Ndume: Senators in our group will reach 86 before Inauguration Day• Akpabio goes to Masari, Sanwo-Olu, promises Senate will work with executive to make Nigeria prosper• Tinubu: PDP will not take NASS leadership positions• Group kicks against APC's imposition of candidates, ruling says, is autocratic and divisive• Northern APC support groups threaten to sanction northern senators opposed to Yari

Not bogged down by opposition voices to their endorsement of the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, the elected All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates for Senate Speaker and Senate Deputy Speaker Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin, yesterday stepped up nationwide consultations with party stakeholders, saying 68 elected senators, from all parties, have already signed on to the draft.

At a media briefing in Lagos yesterday with senior journalists, the chairman of the Senate committee on the military, Senator Ali Ndume, who heads the Akpabio campaign, known as the stability group, said 66 senators had already signed the Akpabio project with two senators, who are outside the country, but who have not yet endorsed their signatures to affirm their approval. Driving Akpabio and Jibrin to Lagos, Ndume said: “The Stability Group is doing this because it is the right thing to do at this time. If it is the President of the Senate, we are all immensely qualified but it is not the only thing, it is necessary to look at the interest of the country and the institution before looking at the personal interest. “It is on this basis that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President-elect Bola Tinubu decided to limit Akpabio and Jibrin as the party's preferred candidates. And this is nothing new, last time in 2019 I was top of the list but the party and President Muhammadu Buhari preferred Ahmad Lawan as Senate Speaker and that's what happened. This time I decided to toe the party line. Of the South-South senators, Akpabio is the most qualified,” he said. In his address, Akpabio laid out his nine-point agenda, which he says will be driven by his uncommon experience in the public sector as commissioner, governor, Senate Minority Leader and cabinet minister for more than 24 years. “The priorities of our 10th Assembly are as follows: Ensure quality, stable and inclusive leadership in the National Assembly with a view to providing robust legislative intervention and making relevant laws for good governance; galvanize a united and virile base of support that will provide credible government policies for the advancement of good governance; develop and promote innovative bills that will improve revenue generation while exercising an effective control function over public expenditure. “Support members in drafting bills and motions, presenting legislative arguments, legislative briefs and general understanding of parliamentary practices and procedures; establish a bipartisan parliamentary network on issues of national interest supported by our party/membership vision; help our members develop a legislative agenda, constituency work plan, and integrated representation model; institute the annual Parliamentary Stability Group Summit (APSGS) to strategize, review and develop guidelines for action for a more virile and stable National Assembly; and sue and lobby (if necessary) for the rights and privileges of our members. Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said that the Senate of the 10th National Assembly must be service-oriented and collaborative with the executive to deliver an appropriate democracy dividend to the people. Speaking yesterday, when some senators on their way to Akpabio visited him at the State House, Marina, the governor said senators must ensure the legislature has an impact and serves the people. Sanwo-Olu noted that for each of the senators to be elected, they must have demonstrated a high sense of responsibility that has brought them this far. So he said they can't break the trust now. “The least we can do is respect your wishes as to who becomes President of the Senate. It is so much more that when you succeed, the executive succeeds and Nigeria succeeds. Much would be expected of you because it would not be business as usual. Akpabio's Chief Executive Officer for the Senate, Ndume, said the initial idea of ​​the consensus is for Nigeria's stability. He added that the president-elect said they should support Akpabio, who is his preferred candidate. “And he asked me to lead the campaign. He also asked Jubrin Barau to stand down for Akpabio and run for Vice President of the Senate and that we should get majority support and...