The race for the senate presidency took an interesting dimension on Friday as fresh facts emerged that two leading contenders, Senator Ali Ndume and Senator Bukola Saraki, had agreed to work together in the overall interest of the country. Both Saraki and Ndume were said to have perfected the arrangement on Thursday night after an exhaustive consultations with their supporters and loyalists within and outside the senate.
Our correspondent learnt that Saraki agreed to support Ndume if the leadership of the All Progressives Congress decided to zone the position to the North-East, while Ndume volunteered to be Saraki’s deputy if the position is zoned to the North-Central.
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A Senator-elect, who did not want his name mentioned, told our correspondent that Ndume attended the Pro-Saraki’s rally held early in the week in Abuja.
Sixty-four other senators-elect also attended the rally.
Ndume, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Millennium Development Goals, was the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives between 2007 and 2011.
One of Ndume’s aides said the senator was worried that the North-East had not put its house in order going by the position of the 12 senators from the zone, who held a news conference and rejected the emergence of Ahmed Lawan as their consensus candidate for the post.
He was said to have expressed concern that lack of cohesion within the North-East senate caucus was enough to rub the region of the position.
The aide said there was apprehension among the senators-elect that if the North-East caucus picks Ndume for the office of the senate president, Lawan might rely on the alleged backing by the APC leadership and go ahead with his ambition.
He cited the one page advertisement placed in some newspapers last week Friday by the Yobe State caucus in the National Assembly declaring support for Lawan as another indication of a crack among the North-East caucus.
Ndume’s aide claimed that the advertisement was at variance with the position of the North-East caucus, which distanced itself from the purported endorsement of Lawan by other caucuses.
He, however, said both Ndume and Lawan met during the week and agreed to abide by the decisions of both the APC and the North-East caucus on the issue.
Ndume, in a telephone interview, declined comments but said, “We are appealing to the party leadership to zone the office of the Senate President to the North-East considering our peculiar condition.”
The factors being considered in favour of the North-East include adverse effect of terrorism especially since it had been established that the zone was the most devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency and one of the poorest regions in the country.
Senators from the zone, while advancing their argument to produce the next senate president, claimed that the people of Borno and Yobe states had always been voting for the opposition parties since 1979.
They argued that if justice was to prevail, now that opposition party had taken over the national government, North-East, particularly Yobe and Borno states, should be compensated.
Meanwhile, the other two gladiators in the race, Senators Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) and George Akume, (Benue North-West), continued their campaigns by holding secret meetings with senators individually and at caucus level.
A group of people who are campaigning for the emergence of Akume as senate president had started pasting posters in strategic areas of Abuja to drum up support for the former Benue State governor.
Lawan , on the other hand, has started making moves to ensure that all the senators in the North-East and South-West who had already endorsed his candidature remained intact.
He paid a visit to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Senator Ajayi Boroffice, on Tuesday as part of his interactions with those within the caucus that had endorsed him.
Boroffice, an APC member from Ondo North Senatorial District, assured the leadership of the All Progressives Congress that the endorsement of Lawan, would not cause any rancour among the lawmakers from his zone.
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