South South joins race for Senate President | Nairalaw

As the race for the leadership of the Ninth National Assembly
begins, different geopolitical zones are advancing reasons they
should produce the next Senate President.

Before the elections, there were speculations that former Akwa
Ibom State Governor Senator Godswill Akpabio was being considered
for the position, but the former Minority leader was not
re-elected.

A source said under the current arrangement, the Northwest
occupies the position of President, the Southwest takes the
position of the Vice President, the Northcentral and the North East
are occupying the position of Senate President and Speaker of the
House of Representatives.

He said: “If you look at the current arrangement, the Southeast
is occupying the position of the Deputy Speaker, even though he is
not a member of the APC, while the Southwest again has the position
of Deputy Speaker.

“In all these, it is only the Southsouth that has not been
accommodated as they have been completely alienated. There was the
argument in 2015 that there was no ranking Senator from the
Southsouth. Now, there are two ranking Senators from the zone. They
are Francis Alimikhena and Ovie Omo Agege.

“The Southsouth should be allowed to produce the Senate
President, while the Speaker should go to the North Central. The
position of Deputy Senate President should go to the Northeast,
while the Southeast takes the position of Deputy Speaker.

“It is their thinking in the Presidency that since the President
is from the Northwest and the Vice President from the South West,
the four senior principal offices in the National Assembly should
go to the other four zones. in other words, nobody from these two
zones should be in contention for these positions.”

The source said unlike 2015 when the President did not secure 25
percent in majority of the states in the Southsouth, President
Buhari was able to muster the required 25 percent in almost all the
states in the zone.

He said: “There is no way President Buhari can finish an eight
year tenure of two terms without the Southsouth occupying any of
the six senior positions in government. That will be grossly unfair
to the zone. So, the thinking is that the Senate President should
come from the Southsouth.”

Ranking Senators from the Northcentral and North east are
already eyeing the position of Senate President with Senate Leader
Ahmed Lawan among the top contenders.

It is not however clear what process will throw up the next
Senate President, but a senior member of the National Working
Committee (NWC) told The Nation that the party has learnt from its
mistakes of 2015 and would get involved in the process of selecting
the leadership of the National Assembly.