Kwankwaso blasts Oyegun over NASS leadership

•Ekweremadu’s position not replacement for S’East slot – Ex-gov

Former governor of Kano State, Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso, yesterday blasted All Progressives Congress (APC) accusing it of displaying crass naivety in the handling of issues regarding the Senate and House of Representatives leaderships.
He said APC’s inability to push through its preferred candidates in the National Assembly has divided the party but refused to back calls for the resignation of the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Kwankwaso, a senator from Kano, dismissed insinuations that the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President should serve as the slot of the South-East in the sharing of key national offices. He said the zone must be given its dues by the APC, arguing that Ekweremadu’s election was a fallout of APC leaders’ many mistakes.
The former governor, who warned APC shortly after the March 28 presidential/National Assembly elections that it might regret it if it did not swiftly zone key offices especially National Assembly leadership positions, accused the National Working Committee (NWC) of poorly handling issues concerning the zoning of Senate President and House Speaker.
Asked to specifically state what the party did wrong, he said, “APC did the right thing at the wrong time. The party missed crucial opportunity to fix the issue of zoning. The party missed some important steps and things went wrong.”
Kwankwaso, who was a supporter of the Ahmed Lawan/Akume Group, said the APC gave the Bukola Saraki group an opportunity and seized it.
He said, “the party gave ample opportunity to Bukola group and they used it effectively. They used the advantages that came to them as a result of the mistakes of the party.”
Listing some of the factors that swayed some senators, he said some lawmakers believed that former Lagos State Governor had taken a lot and needed to be stopped.  Besides, he said some people backed Saraki because of what he did for them in the past.
Further lampooning the party on its handling of the whole thing, Kwankwaso, who is former Minister of Defence, noted that some lawmakers believed Odigie-Oyegun’s NWC didn’t consult them as would have expected. “Many lawmakers believed that the party would have done more in terms of consultations with them,” he said.
On how the development hurt APC, Kwankwaso said, “the party is divided, but it is not too late. The party should take certain steps to ensure that such things don’t happen again.
Flaying the emergence of Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President, the former governor noted that there was no justification for allowing PDP to produce a deputy in the Upper Legislative chamber.
He argued that the emergence of Ekweremadu meant giving PDP which he said was dead before the inauguration, a lifeline.
He said: “As far as I am concerned, PDP was dead until now. They are trying to create life again for them.”
He predicted that the presence of Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President will cause the Buhari administration huge irritation.
Advising APC members on the way forward, Kwankwaso urged party faithful to “come together,” saying: ‘The party must enforce discipline among members.”
The senator urged all the camps in the Senate to reconcile, saying that APC cannot afford to be divided.
On suggestion that South-East has taken its own share of national positions as a result of Ekweremadu’s election, Kwankwaso dismissed such claim as unfair. He insisted that APC must give the zone its dues in the sharing of prime offices.