‘Zone with two Senators can’t produce Deputy Senate President’

As the battle for the leadership of the National Assembly hots
up ahead of the June 11, 2019 inauguration date, the Senator
representing Kano South Senatorial District, Senator Kabiru Gaya
has said that a zone which produced only two Senators cannot
produce the Deputy Senate President ahead of the zone with 17
Senator.

The former Kano state governor who spoke in an interview with
some reporters in Abuja said the north-west zone with 17 Senators
gave the party about 6 million votes which cannot be easily wished
away.

According to him, with the position of Speaker of the House of
Representatives going to the South West which already has the Vice
President, there was nothing wrong in giving the Deputy Senate
President to the North West which has the President.

He argued that giving the position of Deputy Senate President to
the North West will be one of the ways of consolidating the party
in the zone, while the south-south and the south-east are
accommodated in the other leadership positions.

Gaya who is aspiring for the Deputy Senate President position
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 was made possible because of Buhari and Kano factors. What
we are saying is that, because of that, quiet 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.”

On how other zones should be accommodated in the principal
offices of 9th Senate, Gaya who is returning to the Senate for the
fourth time said “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’m 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, you cannot
give Deputy Senate President to where you have only two
senators.”

While saying he does not believe in dropping statistics of
Senators behind his ambition, Gaya expressed confidence that he has
over 70 per cent chances of emerging the Deputy Senate
President.

Other aspirants for the position of the Deputy Senate President
are: Former Abia State governor and Senator-elect, Dr. Orji Uzor
Kalu and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!