10th NASS: Zone Senate Presidency to South-South, Coalition tells Tinubu, APC

Forum 1 year ago

10th NASS: Zone Senate Presidency to South-South, Coalition tells Tinubu, APC

AHEAD of the inauguration of the the10th National Assembly, a group under the aegis of the Coalition for Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa has called on the National Leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the President-elect, Senator Bola Tinubu to zone the position of Senate President to the South-South geo-political zone of the country.

Addressing Journalists yesterday in Abuja, the Convener for South-South Senate Presidency, Prince Kassim Afegbua said that the South-South should occupy the position of number three in the land because they stood firm and contributed a significant percentage of votes to the President-Elect’s victory.

According to him, the APC came first in Rivers State and claimed over 45% of the total number of votes in the other five states, just as he said that this happened in spite of the fact that the region has a historic status of an opposition stronghold, adding that the members of the party from the South-South displayed what he described as a high sense of duty and loyalty to the party, canvassing votes not just for their individual positions but equally for the President-Elect.

Afegbua said that without the outstanding show of belief by the zone, the President-Elect may have well faltered in achieving the mandatory 25% spread in the two-thirds of states of the Federation.

Kassim Afegbua said, “The South-South geopolitical zone occupies a very formidable and remarkable consideration as the treasure base of the country that ought to be accorded special recognition to compensate for all her sacrifices thus far.

“The economic importance of the zone and its strategic relevance to stabilising the politics of the nation, cannot be over-emphasised. In the last election, the ruling party, the APC, was able to make serious in-roads into the zone that has been under the threshold of the opposition PDP. Aside from winning Rivers State, the APC came second in the other five states, thus simplifying the requirement needed by the Presidential candidate to defeat his opponents.”

The former Edo State Commissioner for Information who argued that the South East has occupied the position of Senate President for eight years and Deputy for 12 years, explained that with this scenario, South East can not occupy the position for now.

Afegbua said, “The zone had occupied the seat of Senate President on five occasions, for eight years, and deputy senate president position for 12 years, in the last 24 years of our fledgling democracy. In the minds of those who make the argument, to pacify the South is to indulge the South East and to heed its call for a sense of belonging.

“Let me re-emphasise that in the last 24 years, the South East has enjoyed the unique privilege of producing the Senate President on five different occasions. Senators Enwerem, Okadigbo, Wabara, Anyim, and Nnamani, all of whom held sway as the Presidents of the Senate in the present fourth republic are all from the South East. If you include the additional stretch of 12 years during which the South East also held the Deputy Senate President position, that amounts to a near total control of that arm of government, and a more than earned political compensation.

“Moreover, considering that the contributions of each region to the victory of the ruling party is also a significant factor in the power-sharing tussle, as there would be no power to share without electoral triumph; it is just as important to scrutinize the numbers the South East gave to the APC in the presidential election.”

Afegbua who insisted on why the South-South was more qualified for the Senate President position than the South East, said “Whilst senators from the region who are angling for the Senate President position manage to secure a convincing victory in their various senatorial districts, with some of them pulling thousands of votes, the President-Elect was only able to claim a negligible figure, even though both contest, (the Senatorial and Presidential) held on the same day and followed the same process.

“This points to a possible conspiracy in which the Senators from the Eastern extraction happily traded away the President-Elect’s chances to secure their own victories. If this is the case, as the evidence suggests, it exposes a sore lack of belief in the President-Elect and a most damaging act of self-preservation.

“Contrary to this, the South-South region stood firm and contributed a significant percentage of votes to the President-Elect’s victory. The APC came first in Rivers State and claimed over 45% of the total number of votes in the other five states. This is despite the historic status of the region as an opposition stronghold.

“The members of the party from the South-South displayed a high sense of duty and loyalty to the party, canvassing votes not just for their individual positions but equally for the President-Elect. Indeed, without their outstanding show of belief, the President-Elect may have well faltered in achieving the mandatory 25% spread in the two-thirds of states of the Federation.

“With the foregoing, it would be an act of injustice to accord privilege to the South East over the South-South for the Senate Presidency. It would amount to the party giving one of its biggest prizes to a geopolitical zone that contributed the least to its victory.

“The import of this to members in the future would be that a sense of entitlement and heavy investments in the emotional appeal is all a region needs to score big in the post-election scramble for power, not results at the polls. This is damaging for any party with future plans to maintain its hold on power.”

On his part, the Country Director of the group, Prince John Mayaki, who emphasized the need for inclusive leadership as a precursor to peace and stability in a country as diverse and polarized as Nigeria, said that ceding the position to South-South “is perhaps the most effective way to ensure a satisfactory inclusion of the hugely important region in the leadership of the country; a development certain to calm agitations in the region and help the country avoid possible uprisings that may threaten its fragile economy, especially as it is about to veer into uncharted waters with the planned removal of the oil subsidy.

“Our stand is based on Nigeria’s history and the need for inclusive leadership as a precursor to peace and stability in a country as diverse and polarized as Nigeria.”