…Northern stakeholders lampoon Muslim aspirants

From Fred Itua, Abuja 

Pro-democracy group, The Quintessential Professionals in Politics (TQPIP), has urged aspirants seeking the post of Senate president from the north to emulate the senator representing Niger East, Sani Musa, by supporting the All Progressives Congress (APC) zoning arrangements in the interest of peace, fairness and justice.

Its National Chairman , Dr. Ibrahim Abubakar, made the appeal in a statement in Abuja, yesterday.

Abubakar who said the election of National Assembly presiding officers was based on ranking, competence, character and experience, however,  stressed the need to also consider ethnic and religious sentiments in the process.

He expressed the fear that  except there was an urgent intervention by APC leadership, some aspirants from the North might frustrate the ruling party’s zoning arrangements for leadership positions in the National Assembly.

Abubakar said already, Senators Barau Jibrin (North West), Abdulaziz Yari (North West), Ali Ndume (North East) have categorically stated that ethnic or religious considerations do not matter when talking about the National Assembly leadership positions.

“Some of them had also threatened to go against the wish of the party by contesting the position whether the APC leadership zoned the position or not.We consider the position of these aspirants as an aberration because of the need to ensure that all parts of the country are carried along in the current move by the incoming administration of Bola Tinubu to reconcile all aggrieved people of the country after the just concluded presidential election. They should emulate Senator Sani Musa, who has already expressed his willingness to sacrifice his ambition in the interest of unity and peaceful coexistence of Nigeria. The senator sees Nigeria as a secular nation and had stressed the need to ensure balance between the two main religion in the country,” he said.

Abubakar recalled that Musa said that the tension that heralded the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC presidential candidate and his running mate, should be avoided in the race for the senate presidency.

He had also said that there was no commitment or sacrifice too much to make to keep the unity of Nigeria.