From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Group, Northwest Progressives Forum (NPF) on Saturday told President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the Northwest geopolitical zone deserves to produce the next president of the Senate having given a good votes to emerge the winner of the recently concluded presidential election.
To this group, the leadership of the 10th Senate should not be zoned to a region that does not deserve it in terms of political mobilisation for the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the detriment of deserving zone like Northwest.
Addressing a press conference at the Command Guest House, Kaduna, the Convener, Nasir Dambatta said, the NPF’s position on this subject matter was premised on the doctrine of necessity and devoid of religious consideration.
“We are aware of the several moves and counter-maneuvers by regionalist political actors seeking to place their respective zones at an advantage where it is not deserved.
“Official election result figures show that the North West produced the highest number of votes for Tinubu, which makes it the natural and legitimate claimant to the number three seat.
“While we do not expect President-elect Tinubu and the APC to give to any zone, not least the North-West, what it does not deserve, we however feel it would only be fair to reward the people that toiled for and earned it.
“The rule of fairness, justice and ordinary decency demands in this circumstance, that the North-West, and not any other zone, deserves to be rewarded for its commitment to the APC and the Asiwaju ideals which it amply proved at the polls.
“We, therefore join the call for the APC and the president-elect to act justly and fairly by zoning the position of the Senate President to the region that gave him more than 30 percent of his winning votes”.
If the region is considered, the group went ahead to recommend a former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, for the third biggest political office in the country.
“We feel obligated, after considering so many factors, to suggest that when eventually the slot is micro-zoned to the Northwest, the person that is eminently competent for the job is former Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari.
“After critically examining the credentials of all the candidates being presented for the job, particularly from the North-West, we have come to the conclusion that Yari is most suitable to be the next President of the Nigerian Senate.
“We, therefore, join other groups in categorically endorsing Abdulaziz Yari as the most competent for the job and call on stakeholders in the entire zone to do the same.
“We specifically call on Asiwaju to wade in and ensure the zoning of the Senate presidency to the Northwest and in favour of Yari”, the group added.