Ahead of next week’s inauguration of the 9th Assembly, there are indications that the zoning arrangement for the positions of principal offices reached by stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may be altered.
Tribune Online findings revealed that a senator from the North-west geo-political zone has since thrown his hat into the ring for the position of Deputy Senate President, already conceded to the South-south.
Further findings revealed that in the race for the position of Deputy Senate President are Senator Omo-Agege and Senator Francis Alimikhena, senators representing Delta Central and Edo North, respectively.
But speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, Senator representing Kano South Senatorial District, Kabiru Gaya said it would be a misnomer for the APC to exclude the Northwest that gave the highest number of votes to the APC presidential candidate in the last general elections, Muhammadu Buhari from the race to pick the Deputy Senate President. Incidentally, President Buhari is from Katsina in the Northwest geopolitical zone.
Senator Gaya further noted that the Northwest gave 6milion votes to the APC and should automatically be given the position of Deputy Senate President.
He said: “My reasons for saying nobody should produce the deputy senate president rather than the North West is because we produced 6 million votes and in this kind of politics, you don’t throw away where you are strong.
“You will have to consolidate the party because this last election (APC victory) was made possible because of Buhari and Kano factors.
“What we are saying is that, because of that, quite a number of what we had, Kano alone had 1.4 million and we have 6 million registered voters.
“So, what we are saying is that if we could give speaker to the South West, I can see no reason why we can’t get Deputy Senate President in the North. If we are saying we have the President, fine, South has the Vice President and I believe it is better we consolidate on our positions now. Then, that will attract even the other two zones to also work hard for the APC because I know that President Buhari did a lot in all these states.”
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He dismissed the argument that the position be conceded to the south-south and south-east to produce a candidate in other to give them a sense of belonging in the ruling party as he declared that there are other offices that they could compete for.
“You know we need the South-East, we need the South-South and the remaining four zones.
“You see, there are other positions like Senate Leader which is also a very important position, we have Chief Whip which is also important because if you give all other zones positions, and you deny North West which has the highest number of votes – 6 million votes that would not be good. What it means is that you want to throw away 6 million votes.
“I am saying we need the South-East, we need South-South, but you cannot throw away where you have 20 Senators. Though with the present record we now have 17, which is unfortunate, but you cannot give Deputy Senate President to where you have only two senators.”
Gaya told newsmen that he was sure of emerging deputy Senate president next week.
“My chances are very high. I am sure. I am not bragging but definitely, it is over 70 to 80 per cent.”
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