Senate presidency: Ex-lawmakers back zoning to South

From Fred Itua, Abuja 

Former members of House of Representatives have called on the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) and National Assembly members-elect to consider region and religion in the selection of the presiding officers, especially the office of the Senate president. 

Under the aegis of Leadership Council of The Initiatives, an agenda setting college of former and serving National Assembly members that has Mohammed Uwais and Anyim Pius Anyim as patrons, the group said they are working to ensure the 10th National Assembly doesn’t engage the executive in activism. They said the office of the Senate president should be ceded to the southern region. 

Speaking during a press conference in Abuja, The Dean of the Initiatives, Eseme Eyiboh, said their aim was to build a new Nigeria and add value to its people. 

He said: “The president of the Senate and the Speaker are first among equals so their leadership must not engage with the executive on unnecessary activism. That is why we want leadership at the National Assembly that will benefit the people.”

He said zoning the office of the Senate president to the South would  be fair, but pleaded it be zoned to the South South.

Eyiboh, who said there won’t be justice if the Senate president is a Muslim and the speaker a Muslim, added that religion and ethnicity must be considered in the election of the presiding officers at the National Assembly.

“Because you can’t have one religion to have all the positions. Offices should be occupied by people of different faiths. 

“The APC should understand and consider these issues that we are talking about because zoning is about resolving the issues of social Injustice.

“If the president is from South West, vice president from North East, if earlier models are to be followed, the Senate president should come from South South. 

“If the president is in the South, the model obliges that the Senate president should come from the South South. 

“It is the political party that will do the zoning and look at the votes every region brought to the table. Let the Senate president office go to the South. It won’t look like an aircraft in a control tower. It should be a micro-zone arrangement to the South South,” Oyiboh said. 

Oyiboh, who made a case for Senator Godswill Akpabio from the south south, said the South East produced  Senate presidents since 1999, added that Ken Nnamani, Anyim, Evans Owerem, and Adolphus Wabara were Senate presidents. 

“It cannot go to the South West. It should go to the South South. When the country was burning with insecurity, South South provided peace. South South should be the region the office of the Senate president should be zoned to and it should be fair. 

“Former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio, should be the next Senate president. He was governor, after that, he was brought into the Senate, flourished as an eagle and his colleagues broke the standing rules and made him the minority leader in the Senate,” he  said.