The appointment of Senator Opeyemi Bamidele as the Majority Leader of the 10th Senate is facing opposition from some northern senators in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
These senators argue that selecting Bamidele for the position would further divide the already polarized Red Chamber.
They believe that a senator with lesser experience should not be chosen and that the imbalance in the Senate, where members from the North already feel marginalized, needs to be addressed.
“Now, I learnt that they are pushing for Opeyemi Bamidele for Senate leader. Bamidele is a junior senator who can’t hold the Red Chamber together during any crisis. We know the director of Akpabio’s campaign and Bamidele was the deputy,” the lawmaker told the aforementioned platform.
“When Ahmad Lawan campaigned and got the Senate president, it was the director general of his campaign organisation, Abdullahi Yahaya, that became the Senate leader. When Ndume was campaign director for Saraki, he became Senate leader. When Ndoma Egba was made campaign coordinator for David Mark, it was insisted that he should be the Senate leader.
“Now, they say they want to make the deputy campaign coordinator the Senate leader. Even himself should not have started all these. It does not arise. So, the only reason they are pushing him for the Senate leadership position is because he is Yoruba. And they forgot that it was this same reason that made us to stand for Akpabio.
“If not for some of us, Akpabio would have lost. Even despite the fight that we put on, we escaped with how many votes? Only 17 and Yari needed only nine votes to win. He got 46 already. And you know that at least there were more than 20 people that were in that Akpabio’s camp because of some of us and not because of Akpabio. These are facts. Bamidele has never been in the leadership. Ndume was a minority leader. He was a Senate leader. He led the campaign for Akpabio and he’s older than Bamidele in the National Assembly.”
Bamidele and Senator Ali Ndume are currently competing for the Senate Leader position, with Ndume having led Godswill Akpabio’s campaign for Senate President.
Additionally, some senators have criticized Akpabio for appointing two Christians from the south as his Chief of Staff and deputy, as the existing practice is to choose individuals from both the North and South, reflecting the two faiths.
These senators argue that Akpabio’s choices are creating problems for himself and that he should have sought advice before making these appointments.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
