N’Assembly Leadership: CD Hails N’central Senators-elect, Govs on Zoning

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The President, Campaign for Democracy (CD), Pastor Ifeanyi Odili, has commended the governors and senators-elect from the North-central geopolitical zone for making their position known on time concerning the 10th National Assembly leadership positions.

Odili, who is also the Convener, Conference of Nigerian Civil Rights Activists, stated this in an interview with THISDAY in Abuja Saturday.

The rights activist noted that the action of the North-central governors and senators-elect would help the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to take the right decision when they meet to decide on the zoning arrangements for the 10th National Assembly leadership positions.

Governors and senators-elect from the geopolitical zone had last week met in Abuja in separate places to demand the zoning of the position of the Deputy President of the Senate to the North-central.

They also urged the leadership of the APC to note that it was the only National Assembly leadership position they were demanding as the reward for their extraordinary performance during the February 25 presidential election.

The CD President said the National Working Committee of the APC and the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, already knew the position of the North-central geopolitical zone on the National Assembly leadership positions based on the declaration of the zone’s political leaders.

He therefore urged other geopolitical zones to boldly come up with their own preference like the North-central so that the APC leadership would know where they stood in the zoning arrangements.

Odili said: “It is a known fact that the South-west geopolitical zone had produced the president-elect, while the North-east had also produced the vice-president-elect, who are both Muslims.

“It is only natural that the position of the Senate President should go to a ranking Christian senator from either the South-east or South-outh in conformity with the religious and ethnic diversity of Nigeria.

“Similarly, going by the fact that the North-west produced the highest number of votes for the APC presidential candidate in the last general election, the position of the Speaker, House of Representatives should naturally go to the zone.

“The North-central, with the second highest number of votes for Tinubu, should take the position of the Deputy Senate President and the governors and senators-elect have already demanded for it.

“They have also pleaded with the leadership of the APC and the president-elect to micro-zone the Deputy Senate President to the senator representing Niger East Senatorial District, Sani Musa.

“The direction the North-central geopolitical zone is going on the issue is crystal clear.

“Anybody from another geopolitical zone who is still eyeing the position is only deceiving himself.”

Odili added that the North-central, in the spirit of equity, justice and fairness, actually deserve the position of the Deputy Senate President going by its performance at the last presidential election.