Senate Presidency: North Central Has Had Enough – Northern Students
Senate Presidency: North Central Has Had Enough – Northern Students
By Alex Uangbaoje
As agitation for the leadership of National Assembly thickened, some student groups in the North has come together to lend their voices on the issue, the groups under the auspices of Amalgamated Northern Nigerian Students Forum (ANNSF) has called on the All Progressive Congress (APC) leadership to zone the Senate Presidency to the north-east zone.
The students’ forum gave the advised through its president, Comrade Yahaya Ayuba in a press conference on Tuesday, where he said, though it was not certain where the senate presidency would be zoned to, but the speculations that the north-central and the north east are top contenders for the position, informed his advised.
He added that, if the speculations are true, then, the north-east should be favoured ahead of the north-central who had held the senate presidency for about eight years of the 16 years of the present democratic rule, with the current Senate President, Senator David Mark hailed from the north central, zoning the plumed job to the region now would make it look like an hereditary position for the region.
Comrade Yahaya argued that the north-east zone has being marginalised for too long and also neglected in their troubles this past years and that it is only natural for the sake of justice to zone the position to the region.
Comrade Yahaya further stated that, as students and youth that actively participated in the process that brought in the in-coming government, they would not stand and watch while undeserved persons who do not match the credibility of the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, clinched the senate Presidency of Nigeria.
Yahaya added that, the President-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, has consistently maintained his detest to work with people with questionable character, who have being indicted by anti-graft agencies in the country.
In this regard, the group who have representatives from all the 19 northern states however endorsed Senator Ahmed Lawal, a Senator from Yobe state for the Senate Presidency based on what they described as his clean records and sound moral standing with his track records of quality leadership, which he has displayed in his previous stewardship in the national assembly.
“Now should the directives of the president-elect be respected, then out of the top contenders for the senate Presidency in the North-central and North-east, senator Ahmed Lawal is the only person that has clean record as he does not have any corruption cases on his neck”
Comrade Yahaya further revealed that, Senator Lawal, was elected in 1999, as member house of Representatives and after eight years in the lower chamber, in 2007, he was elected as Senator from Yobe East Senatorial district, held the record of convening the most committee meetings in the senate and a prolific contributor to debates on the floor of the chamber, therefore, the most qualified for the job.
