By Charles Adingupu
As the race for Senate President hots up, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) says it is not in the interest of President Bola Tinubu to impose leadership on the about-to-be inaugurated 10th National Assembly (NASS).
NEF Spokesman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed argued on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme that
“the farther that he (Tinubu) is away from the tussle of who becomes Senate President and Deputy the better.”
Baba-Ahmed disagreed with APC’s zoning of the National Assembly leadership. He argues that lawmakers should be allowed to elect their leaders.
The NEF spokesman posited that “Legislators should be allowed to decide where positions go. That is the argument I have made. I haven’t made an argument saying it must go to the North. I have said there are other elements that need to be considered.
“If the decision is made freely and fairly by legislators, it can go to the South, we will live with it. It can go to the North, we will deal with it. There is no problem.”
He said the position of the Senate President is Primus inter pares and anyone who finally emerges could be impeached.
In the just-concluded elections, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) secured over 170 of the 360 seats in the green chamber, the highest by any party. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with over 100 seats, the Labour Party (LP) with over 35 seats, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) with about 20.
Many APC lawmakers have since indicated interest to emerge the next Speaker of the House. They include Sada Soli, Benjamin Kalu, Ahmed Wase, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, Yusuf Gagdi, Aliyu Betara, Tajudeen Abbas, Abdulraheem Olawuyi, Sani Jaji, Princess Onuoha, amongst others.
Also, Senators Abdulaziz Yari, Orji Kalu, Godswill Akpabio have also showed interest in becoming the next Senate President after Ahmad Lawan.
However, the APC officially zoned the Senate President to the South-South (Akpabio) Deputy Senate President to the North-West, Barau Jibrin. The party also zoned the Speaker position to the North-West (Abass), and Deputy Speaker to the South-East (Kalu).
Many APC hopefuls rejected the party’s position and called for a review of the formula to cover the North Central geopolitical zone and not two positions for the North-West but the party chieftains continue to argue that the North-West gave the President the highest vote and therefore deserves to be compensated.
Meanwhile, Abass and Kalu met with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 1 as the race for the next NASS leadership gets hotter.
