A former Assembly man in Cross River, Mr. Cletus Obun, has said that the Presidency of the 10th Senate should be zoned to the South-South geopolitical zone.
Obun, who was a member of the APC 2023 Presidential Campaign Council, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Calabar.
He said that the zone should be given the right of first refusal since it had more votes and the constitutional 25 percent in five of its six states in the just concluded 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The zoning arrangement of the Presidency of the 10th Senate has generated various opinions with some saying that the slot should go to the South-South and South-East zones.
However, some politicians from the North West, the North Central and the North East are opposed to such an arrangement.
They also argued that the call for the zoning of the senate presidency should be disregarded for now because the APC did not zone its presidential ticket to any geopolitical zone in Nigeria.
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Obun, however, said that the South-South should not be excluded from the senate presidency in the present political dispensation.
According to him, the zone deserves “more than what it is presently getting for being the economic umbilical cord of the nation”.
Obun said: “In the present political dispensation, the Senate President has to be left to the South South Zone while the position of Secretary to the Government of the Federation should be left to the South East.
“South South had more votes, the constitutional 25 per cent in 5 of the 6 states; as the economic umbilical cord of the nation, the zone deserves more than it is presently getting.
“It is, therefore, without equivocation that we in the South South present a ranking senator, a man with executive experience as commissioner, governor and Minister, a man with legislative exposure as Senate Minority Leader, the only ranking senator with this weighty pedigree, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.”
He said that beyond sentiments, the present National Assembly must necessarily be a complement to the executive and not its extension, adding that “Sen. Akpabio is that needed stabilising rod”.
Also, former Senate Leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba, said that the leadership of the National Assembly should be zoned to Christians for balance.
Ndoma-Egba, was Secretary Campaign Planning Directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign Committee in the 2023 elections.
He said: “The principle enunciation in section 14, sub section 3 of the Constitution is that of inclusiveness, of social justice, of equity.”
According to him, every section or religion must be accommodated in the governance of Nigeria, in the opportunities and resources of this country to reflect Federal Character and the need for national unity.
“What we have always had was that if we have the President from the North, Vice President will be from the South and Senate Presidency will be in the North and vice versa.
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“It is proper in this circumstance that it should be zone to the South East,” Ndoma-Egba said.
He also advised Muslims from the Northern interested in the senate presidency to reconsider their position in the interest of peace and unity of Nigeria.
He also urged them to do so in the spirit of the provision of Section 14 sub-section 3 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
However, the APC has not come out with a position on how the Senate presidency will be zoned.
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