Bukar, group canvass Senate Presidency slot to North-East

THE senator representing Yobe East Senatorial District in the Upper Chamber, Ibrahim Abba Bukar, has said it would be unfair if the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) eventually decides to accept a recommendation of zoning the Senate President seat to North-Central and the Speakership position of the House of Representatives to South-West in the Eight National Assembly.

In an interview in Abuja, Bukar, a former governor of Yobe State, who was elected for the third time into the Senate in the 2015 general election, said the proper thing to do was to zone the Senate Presidency or Speakership of the House of Representatives to North-East, as against the Deputy Senate President seat proposed for the region. According to him: “This first step so far taken is a wrong step.

The Segun Oni ad-hoc committee has made recommendation to the leadership of the party. The recommendation so made to the party is totally wrong, biased and heavily lopsided. I just hope the party will do something about it.

I hope President-elect will do something about it. Of course, whatever anybody says, whatever the party says, whatever the President-elect says, at the end of day, it is the members of the National Assembly who are going to elect their leaders any way. So, I just hope this first step is corrected.

It is wrong for this committee to recommend that North-Central, which has produced four different Senate Presidents in this country, should continue to produce another Senate President, while the North-East has never produced a single Senate President; never ever produced a single Speaker.

The highest we have ever held in the North-East zone is the Deputy Speaker. Now again, the zone is not given the Senate President or at least even the Speakership.” Also, a group from the north-eastern part of Nigeria yesterday canvassed for Senate Presidency slot.

This was as the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) meets on the zoning arrangement for leadership positions in the National Assembly.

Coming under the umbrella name of The Concerned Professionals in the North-East, the group demands that the party zones the Senate Presidency to the region for the sake of equity, justice and fairness.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the group, led by Inuwa Yahaya, an accountant, said that the North-Central geo-political zone has always benefitted immensely from political positions zoned to the North, particularly the Senate Presidency.

Bukar added: “The South-West, which has the Vice President, is again given the Speakership. This is very, very unfair. This is a continuous marginalisation of the North-East, which we have been fighting against all this while.

The continuous marginalisation and neglect of the North-East has always been our bane. We have always been relegated to the background.

With over fifty years of marginalisation, they made us poverty-stricken, the poorest part of Nigeria, the most under-developed part of Nigeria. They still want to continue the same practice.

This is the practice of the South-West, North-Central. The North-West of course has always been everywhere marginalising us. Now, they have the President, they still want to continue to marginalise us. So, this is a very wrong step.

I just hope we are not going to go along that line.” Yahaya said: “We, as concerned professionals, humbly appeal to the APC NEC to consider zoning the Senate Presidency to the North-East because in the whole of northern Nigeria, it is the most relegated zone when it comes to sharing of political positions.

“In this instance, the North-Central, which is touted to be in the fore-front to clinch the position of the Senate Presidency in the Senate, has benefitted more than any other zone in the region.

The North-Central has been Senate President for eight years in a row with the Senator David Mark from Benue State as President.   “Secondly, the same Benue State has been Minority Leader since 2011 in the person of Senator George Akume, who is, himself, a former two-term governor of Benue State. All these are in the Seventh Senate.   “

Also, in past Republics, Benue State has occupied the Senate President seat for at least, twice; on different occasions. The North-East has always been marginalised in sharing of political positions.   “This is the time to correct this anomaly because during the just concluded general elections, the North East gave more votes to the APC than any other zone in the north or even the North Central.”