Senate leadership crisis: Buhari may meet Saraki -From Adetutu Folasade

• Govs meet Saraki, give sharing formula

Political horse-trad­ing to resolve the lingering leader­ship crisis in the National Assembly was set in motion in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
All Progressives Con­gress (APC) governors may have impressed it on Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari to wade into the leadership deadlock in both chambers.
Daily Sun gathered that some governors met with Buhari on Tuesday evening, breaking fast with him at the Presidential Villa.
At the parley, the gov­ernors reportedly expressed displeasure with the crisis in the National Assembly and the attendant bad publicity it was giving the party.
The blame for the lead­ership crisis was heaped squarely on the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun -led leader­ship. One of the governors present at the parley, whose state borders Abuja alleg­edly told the president that they would be meeting with Saraki on the matter. It was not ascertained whether the president gave his consent to the meeting.
The president’s meeting with the governors ended at about 1a.m. yesterday.
Regardless, the gover­nors reportedly moved to Saraki’s house in Maitama and they were said to have impressed it on the Senate President “to obey the par­ty’s position” with regards to the sharing of the remaining four principal offices.
One of the governors was said to have told Saraki that, “God gives power to whom He desires. Now, you are the Senate President.
“That is a reality,” and went further to tell him that, as a committed party man, Saraki should enforce the letter sent to him by the par­ty’s chairman.
Others also urged Saraki to respect the party’s posi­tion. The Senate president reportedly told his nocturnal visitors that he was open to reconciliation but the other camp, the Senate Unity Fo­rum should also concede some positions.
The convention in the National Assembly is that leadership positions in the majority party are shared based on federal character, which means that the six geo-political zones would each produce a principal of­ficer.
Saraki reportedly relayed this information to his guests and also added that it would be better if both sides con­ceded to each other by taking two positions each.
“They were told it was impossible for Senator George Akume to be given Deputy Majority Leader as the zone has already pro­duced the Senate President.”
“Another caveat was that Senator Ahmad Lawan should be ready to let go of Akume while Saraki should be ready to let go of the Ma­jority Leader position, which was allegedly promised Sen­ator Ali Ndume.”

Culled from Sun