Senate Presidency: Step Down For South-South Candidate, Lukman Advises North-West Senators

Forum 1 year ago

Senate Presidency: Step Down For South-South Candidate, Lukman Advises North-West Senators

Malam Salihu Moh. Lukman, the National Vice Chairman (North West) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has issued a warning to the party.

He warned the party not to allow elected National Assembly members to proceed with the business of constituting the leadership of the 10th National Assembly in an unregulated manner.

He also advised Senators-elect from his geopolitical zone aspiring for the office of Senate President in the 10th Assembly to step down for their counterparts from the South-south.

Lukman, in a statement in Abuja titled “APC and tasks of negotiating 10th NASS leadership” said the party must be fully involved in determining who gets what positions in the two chambers of the National Assembly if the party and the country must avoid the pitfalls of 2015.

The former Director General of the Progressive Governors’Forum (PGF), who complained about the laidbback attitude of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), advised that the party should be more aggressive in driving the process of negotiating leadership of the 10th National Assembly.

“As a party, it would seem that APC has relapsed back to the 2015 mode of allowing elected National Assembly members to proceed with the business of constituting the leadership of the 10th National Assembly in an unregulated manner. 

“This is very risky, not just for APC but for the country. Given that as a party, we contested the 2023 elections with a Muslim-Muslim ticket of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sen. Kashim Shettima, an unregulated contest for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly could produce another Muslim as Senate President. There is also the high probability that a Muslim could also emerge as Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives.”

He also stressed the need to use the sharing of political offices to douse ethnic and religious tension, following the hues and cries the party’s presidential ticket generated. To actualise this, Lukman said sacrifice will be required from party members and leaders.

On the strength of this, the zonal chairman advised all Senators from the North West aspiring for the Senate Presidency should drop their aspiration for Senators from South-South.

He said: “For instance, I have people from North-West declaring to contest for the position of Senate President without the courtesy of consulting any of us from North-West in NWC. As much as I respect every elected National Assembly member from North-West, I will appeal to those aspiring for the position of Senate President to step down their aspiration in the overall interest of national cohesion and to ensure that in line with our commitment as leaders of the North-West to support the administration of Asiwaju Tinubu to assume office on May 29, 2023, with a good support base from Nigerians across every section and irrespective of the ethnic and religious divide.

“This public appeal has become necessary given the flood of aspirants for leadership of the 10th National Assembly, which if left to continue unregulated could throw up unexpected people in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly. Should that be allowed to happen may result in producing the undesirable consequences of destroying the electoral viability of APC in future elections. As a ruling party, mandated to provide political leadership to the country for the next four years, everything must be done to sustain the confidence of Nigerians.

“As a concerned party member and leader, I make this appeal conscious of where we are coming from. We have proven to Nigerians that nothing is impossible in Nigerian politics. We have successfully consummated the first and only merger of opposition parties in the political history of the country. We are the first party to successfully defeat a ruling party. It is therefore not impossible to be the party that can facilitate the emergence of Nigeria as a strong united country. For that to happen, we need to douse the current ethnic and religious tension in the country.

“Without going into the details of the sacrifices required, we certainly would need to invoke the powers of superior organs of the party where all proposals could be tabled, debated and decisions are taken, which should be binding on everyone, including elected representatives in the National Assembly. Perhaps, we need to acknowledge that the critical issue before us as a party today is a decision about the zoning formula for offices in the National Assembly and the Asiwaju Tinubu-led government.”