The Presidency on Wednesday disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari and his government will not allow the emergence of saboteurs in the leadership of the ninth National Assembly (NASS).
This was disclosed by a senior aide to the President on a condition of anonymity.
According to him, the President will ensure that only persons selected by the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) emerge as President of the Senate and other presiding officers of both the red and green chambers.
Even as he declared the President has no preferred candidates for the position of the principal officer of the parliament, he said that he is ready and willing to support the decision of the leadership of the party in line with worked out zoning arrangements.
He said the presidency had never had it smooth with the relationship that existed between it and the leadership of the 8th National Assembly and will therefore not sit to fold its arms while another set of unfriendly characters emerge in the next dispensation.
He said: “Be rest assured that the President will not micro-manage the process electing the National Assembly leadership but he will not allow the lawlessness that happened in 2015 to repeat itself.
“The President will allow the decision of the party to remain supreme. Once the party zones the positions, he will give maximum support to it.
“It is not like before, now, the decision of the party is supreme. You see what has happened to the two governors. In the past, this won’t have been possible.
“What I can tell you is that the President doesn’t have any preferred candidates,” he said.
At the beginning of the eight parliament, both Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, had emerged against the arrangement of the APC leadership. (The Nation)
