Tijani Adeyemi – Abuja
The amalgamation of the All Progressives Congress Northern groups in Nigeria has urged the National Working Committee of the party to consider the North Central geopolitical zone for the position of the Deputy Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.
The highly influential pressure groups said since the Senate President and Deputy Senate President positions must be shared between the North and the South, the North Central stood a better chance to produce a Presiding Officer of the red chamber.
The Coordinator of the Coalition, Alhaji Habibu Salau, appealed in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday.
He said Senator Sani Musa, a ranking senator from the North Central geopolitical zone, is eminently qualified to be elected either as the Senate President or Deputy.
“If the All Progressives Congress leadership decided to zone the position to the South, the deputy Senate President should automatically go to the North Central.
“In fairness, the North Central deserves to produce the next Senate President or Deputy because of the impressive performance of the APC in the zone in the last election going by the numbers of APC senators produced from different geopolitical zones.
“For instance, the South West produced 15 out of 18; South-South had seven out of 18; South East with six out of 15; North Central got 10 out of 19; North East, nine out of 18 and North West, eight out of 21.
“Aside from party politics, it is obvious that the South West and North Central Senators-Elect would determine the next presiding officers of the red chamber of the National Assembly.
“The APC National working committee should therefore consider all these factors before embarking on the zoning arrangements for the next leader of the 10th Senate.”
It would be recalled that the APC leadership is yet to zone any of the presiding officer’s positions to any of the zones in the country.
