Ahead of June inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, a group, Coalition for Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa, has called on the leadership of the All Progressives Congress and president -elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to seize the opportunity provided by the race for presiding officers of the Parliament to disabuse the minds of the average Nigerian on the narrative of Islamization agenda of the ruling party.
The group made the call on Monday at a press briefing in Abuja.
Addressing journalists, National Convener of the group, Prince Prince Kassim Afegbua said the party leadership must look in the direction of the South south to produce the President of the Senate.
Afegbua submitted that aside taking care of religious balancing, ceding the exalted seat to the region would also give a sense of belonging to the zone described as the cash cow of the country.
He said: “In this dispensation, under the prevailing circumstances, we strongly believe that the incoming president Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC can only satisfy the necessary need to balance ethnic, regional, and religious concerns by ceding the Senate Presidency and Speakership to other religions. In the light of this, we appeal to the leadership of the ruling party, the APC, and the President-elect to cede the Senate President to the South-South geopolitical zone.
“The argument as to why it must be a member credibly subscribed to other faith is self-evident and requires no elaborate explanation or defence. With the incoming President and Vice President both Muslims in a country with compelling arguments for balancing of all the factors and forces, it will only be reasonable and rational to allow other religions occupy the Senate President and Speakership positions. The interest of this group is for the Senate President to be zoned to the South-South. 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. “
Responding to agitation for the same seat by the south-east region, Afegbua noted that aside occupying the office five different times in the last 24 years, the region did not support the aspiration of the president elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Afegbua recalled that during the last February presidential election, the APC came first in Rivers State and claimed over 45% of the total number of votes in the other five states in the south south.
He said:” 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.
“Indeed, whilst Senators from the region who are angling for the Senate President position manage to secure 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 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.”
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