Emergence of Majority, Minority Leaders top agenda as Senate resume

The Senate is to resume sitting on Tuesday after the Eid-el Kabir holiday.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that as the upper chamber resumes, majority and minority leaders are expected to emerge.

The All Progressives Congress, with the largest number of members, is expected to produce the Majority Leader, while the opposition Peoples Democratic Party will produce the Minority Leader.

NAN reports that while APC has 59 senators, PDP 36, Labour Party eight, Social Democratic Party two, New Nigeria Peoples Party two, Young Peoples Party one and All Progressives Grand Alliance one.

This shows that seven political parties make up the membership of the 10th Senate, with 50 as opposition members.

The ruling APC and the minority caucus are also expected to fill the vacant eight principal positions.

While the APC is expected to produce the majority leader, deputy majority leader, chief whip and deputy chief whip, the four principal positions reserved for the minority caucus are minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip and deputy minority whip.

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PDP, being the major opposition party, is expected to produce the minority leader, deputy leader, minority whip and deputy minority whip.

Nominations for the positions are purely the affairs of political parties with the majority of seats in the Senate.

Findings by NAN show that the major contenders for the Senate majority leader’s seat are Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC-Ekiti) and Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC-Borno).

The duo were among the arrowheads of Senate President Godswill Akpabio’s campaign for the Senate presidency.

Ndume served as the Director-General of Akpabio’s campaign committee, while Bamidele was the deputy.

Also, Senator Adamu Aliero (PDP-Kebbi) and Senator Aminu Tambuwal (PDP-Sokoto) are contenders for the minority leader seat.