North-West gave Tinubu highest votes, deserves senate presidency – CNG

The Coalition of Northern Groups has said the North-West should be considered for the position of the senate president given that the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, got his highest votes from the zone.

It also said it would be unfair if the position was zoned to the South since Tinubu is from there.

The spokesperson for the group, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday said, “Ideally and for the sake of fairness and balance, the South as a whole should not expect the senate presidential slot with the President-elect coming from there.

“I think we should reasonably be looking at functions here. The functions of the vice-president are just nominal, which means the North might not be seen to hold a functional position just because it has the vice-president. The next functional office after that of the president is therefore the Senate Presidency.

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“In this case, since the South has the highest functional office, the next, which is the senate presidency, should legitimately remain in the North, assuming that means anything. It will then be for the North to sub-zone the position to either the North-West or the North Central.”

He, however, argued that for, the North-West should have it, having played a critical role in the victory of the APC in the February 25 presidential election.

“The North-West, without a doubt, was where the President-elect got the bulk of his winning votes over and above even his own region, the South-West,” he added.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Pan Niger-Delta Forum, Chief Ken Robinson, said it was the turn of the South-South to produce the next senate president.

Ken Robinson, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, said, “PANDEF’s position is that it is the turn of the South-South to produce the senate president. We recall that the last time anyone from the South-South occupied that office was in 1983. We had it in 1979. Since then, especially in this dispensation that started in 1999, we have not had a taste of that office.

“We have said the South-East, at some point, had the senate presidency as a birthright. From 1999 to 2007, they produced four senate presidents.

“As manoeuvring intensifies over the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, PANDEF asks the leadership of the APC, which has the majority of senators-elect, to zone the position of senate president to the South-South.”

Meanwhile, the President of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu, said the region was with Obi on the election petition he filed at the tribunal.

He stated, “We at the MBF still stand with Peter Obi, who was our presidential candidate in the election. As long as the court process is still on, we don’t want to get involved with all those permutations and lobbying (for NASS leadership).