There is an ongoing supremacy battle between the senate president, Godswill Obot Akpabio and Senator Adams Oshiomhole and so far, Akpabio seems to be the one gaining the upper hand, at least for the time being.
It all began when both men indicated interest in the senate president seat. Akpabio, who was a returning senator, deployed all the tricks he knew about how the National Assembly works. Coupled with the fact that President Bola Tinubu threw his weight behind his ambition, he easily edged out Oshiomhole and the rest of the candidates.
Also, when it was time to share the chairmanship of juicy senate committees, Oshiomhole wanted to chair a particularly juicy committee. Again, Akpabio played a deft move, edged him out and gave him the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Interior. He took it in his stride and hoped that his ministerial nominee would at least be fixed in a juicy ministry, specifically the petroleum ministry.
Unfortunately, his hopes got dashed again as his nominee, Abubakar Momoh got the Youth Ministry. Frustrated and at his wits end, he was forced to approach Tinubu to do something drastic and save him from a looming embarrassment. As the head of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Edo State, it is Oshiomhole’s duty to raise money for the gubernatorial election in 2024, if he wants the APC to have a strong hold in the state and to also maintain his political relevance.
In this regard, he had hoped to use either his position as senate president, chairman of a juicy senate committee to ‘raise’ the required funds needed for the election or to raise funds through his lackey, Momoh. Seeing that if he didn’t act fast enough, he may as well kiss his dreams goodbye. This was what prompted him to plead with Tinubu for his intervention. And Tinubu didn’t disappoint his friend.
Momoh was then quickly redeployed to the ministry of Niger Delta Development. But that was only the beginning of Oshiomhole’s problems. Even though his lackey heads a juicy ministry, the trio of Akpabio, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT and James Ibori, a former governor of Delta State – all of whom are Tinubu’s foot soldiers in the south south, ensured that Oshiomhole’s man will be nothing but a sitting stooge without powers.
They got their own allies to occupy sensitive and strategic positions in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. Ibori’s ally from Delta State, Chiedu Ebie heads the juicy commission as chairman, so also Abasi Nkono from Akwa Ibom, Akpabio’s lackey and Wike’s lackey, Boma Iyaye from Rivers State as the Executive Director (Finance and Admin).
The primary duty of the trio is to ensure that Oshiomhole doesn’t have his way through his own points man, They plan on checkmating him from ever gaining any form of political relevance, enough to cause them worry. The endgame is all about 2027. To finally put a nail on Oshiomhole’s political coffin as it were, the Senate, deftly steered by Akpabio, amended its rule to restrict first-time senators from vying for any principal office such as the position of the Senate President and Deputy Senate President.
The amendment happened amidst rumours of alleged moves by northern lawmakers allegedly supported by Oshiomhole, to impeach Akpabio. And Oshiomhole is a first time senator. It is really all about 2027. (TheWill)
