Senator Ali Ndume has asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) to leave the leadership of the incoming 10th National Assembly open and not zoned.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that the lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District believes it would be better to exclude zoning from the selection of the incoming 10th NASS leadership.
According to him, the Senate President’s position is not based on geography, but rather on a vote of the lawmakers.
When he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, the lawmaker stated his position on the issue.
Ndume, who said he was waiting for his party to decide on the leadership of the incoming Senate and House of Representatives, added that while the constitution does not preclude him from running for Senate President, now is not the time.
He went on to say that the fact that the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, is from the South-West zone and the Vice-President-Elect, Kashim Shettima, is from the North-East zone does not preclude lawmakers from both zones from aspiring to lead the incoming 10th National Assembly.
Ndume explained that;
Of course, if I say I want to contest and the party say, ‘No, it’s not fair for the Senate President to come from the North or the North-East, do we then now say that we want to contest against the wish of the party which we did at one time and the aftermath was a bit clumsy and we don’t want to have a repetition of that?”
For me, the leadership of the National Assembly should be open in the first instance.
The Senate President is not supposed to be a regional President; it’s a Senate President of the Nigerian Senate.
We have 109 senators. The leadership emergence is not clearly stated. Section 50 of the constitution states that the Senate President shall be elected among the members.