THE National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (North-West), Malam Salihu Lukman, on Monday, warned against choosing a Muslim lawmaker as the next Senate president to avoid a repeat of the tension that greeted the party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket last year.
The APC chieftain made the appeal in a statement issued in Abuja titled ‘Cash-and-Carry Contest for Leadership of 10th National Assembly.’
His appeal is coming in the wake of reports that many aspirants eyeing the Senate president seat have turned the APC national secretariat to a warehouse where several bags of rice and sugar were offloaded as an inducement to NWC members last week.
While noting that it is compelling for the ruling party to zone the prestigious office to either the South-South or South-East for national unity, Lukman also called on former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari and the Chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Jibrin Barau, to step down from the race.
He said, “It is therefore very compelling that the Senate President should come from either the South-South or South-East. I want to specifically note that two respected Senators-elect from North-West has made public declarations of their aspirations for the position of Senate President. These are His Excellency Abdulaziz Yari and Sen. Barau Jibrin.
“Now that power has shifted to the Southern part of the country, as a region, we equally have the responsibility to regulate the conduct of all our Senators-elect from the North-West, including the two Senators-elect Abdulaziz Yari and Barau Jibrin to withdraw their aspiration for the Senate President.
“All party leaders from North-West must prevail on these leaders to in the overall interest of the unity and peaceful coexistence of the country withdraw their aspirations to contest the position of Senate President for the 10th Senate. At the most, they should aspire for the position of Majority Leader of the Senate in line with the 1999 zoning formula in the Senate.”
The emergence of Yari and Barau has increased the number of senators jostling for the number one office in the Red Chamber.
Others in the race include former Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio; senator-elect representing Imo West, Osita Izunaso and Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, who recently lost his wife.
But Lukman, a member of the APC National Working Committee, however, reiterated that no North-West or North-East candidate should be considered for the position.
While describing the incessant lobbying of lawmakers and NWC members as worrisome, he expressed concerns that the imposition of a Muslim leader in the Senate following the outrage that greeted the emergence of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and his Deputy-elect, Kashim Shettima, who share the same faith, could create chaos.
“Any Muslim aspiring for the position of Senate President has no respect for both the constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the APC. This is because Chapter II, Section 14(3) of the Nigerian constitution clearly outlined that ‘the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.
“With two Muslims already elected to be sworn in as President and Vice President of the Federal Republic on May 29, any attempt to consider another Muslim as Senate President will promote the dominance of Muslims in the Federal Government and will be injurious to national unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as a sovereign entity, which must not be allowed.”
“This has reduced the contest for the leadership of 10th National Assembly to Cash-and-Carry. To say the least, this is both disappointing and worrisome. How can APC elected representatives descend so low as to be using unethical methods of cash-and-carry to mobilise support for their aspirations?”
