A chieftain of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in Kano State, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has explained why the idea of a Northern Muslim as the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly shouldn’t be encouraged.
Jibrin said any Nigerian who loves the country should not support a northern Muslim to be the next Senate President.
He stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
He said, “My personal opinion, if you look at the entire controversy of the Muslim-Muslim ticket, I think anybody that loves this country should not be thinking that the number three man should be a northern Muslim,”
“The appropriate thing is that the position should go to a southern Christian. I believe that anybody who wants it the other way round, he loves himself more than the country.”
Jibrin, a member-elect to represent Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency in the 10th National Assembly, said using the 1999 template, the next Senate President should be from the South-East geopolitical zone.
The NNPP chieftain said, “If you adopt the 1999 template, it means that the Senate Presidency will go to the South-East. I know a lot of people are going to shout: ‘Oh, the South-East are fighting the APC!’
“For goodness sake, once a President emerges, it is fundamentally right for him to assume the status of the President of the country.”
Jibrin also said the positions of the Deputy Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives should be zoned to the North-Central and North-West, respectively.
Recall that the All Progressives Congress, APC produced the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu from the South-West zone and the Vice-President-Elect, Kashim Shettima from the North-East.
The party also won majority of the legislative seats during the February 25th National Assembly elections, with over 55 Senate seats out of 109 and over 160 out of 360 House of Representatives seats.