Senate Presidency: Odds Favours Northwest, Barau

The race for the senate presidency has begun almost three months before the expected inauguration of the 10th Assembly in June.

Ranking senators elected on the platform of the APC from geopolitical zones outside that of the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (South-west) and his vice, Kashim Shettima ( North-east) are already positioning themselves for the coveted position throwing up so many factors in the mix

The APC may likely favour the zone that gave it its strongest support and cooperation and that will favour the Northwest which gave the highest number of votes.

This has been the tradition in the past, where the region that gives the ruling party its support is most favoured for such positions.

During the Obasanjo era, it was easy to zone the seat of the Senate President to the South-east because the region voted overwhelmingly for the PDP government and in the Umaru Yar’Adua -Goodluck Jonathan administrations, the North-central zone was favoured due to the same reasons.

In the present circumstance, since the Northwest has contributed immensely to Tinubu’s emergence, it is expected that the zone would be rewarded with the position.

Coincidentally, the region boasts of an array of rankings legislators who are eminently qualified to occupy the seat.

Top on the list is Senator Jibrin Barau from Kano State. The odds favour Kano due to its strategic importance as one of the super-states in the Nigerian power equation.

The need for the APC government to consider Kano has become more imperative due to the threat of annihilation by the Rabiu Kwankwaso-led NNPP which inflicted considerable damage on the APC in the last elections.

One of the few people who was able to withstand the onslaught of the NNPP and returned his Senatorial District to the APC is Jibrin Barau, a fourth-term legislator who has shown capacity, by winning the Kano North senatorial seat consistently for three consecutive times.

With that feat, it has become clear that Barau has the capacity not just to check the excesses of the NNPP and return Kano fully to the APC but can provide the needed leadership for the success of the APC-led government.

Senator Barau, who is the current Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, is a thoroughbred lawmaker who has served a better part of his political life in the parliament.

He was in the House of Representatives between 1999 to 2003 where he served as the chairman of the committee on appropriation and came back to the National Assembly in 2015, this time as a senator.

He not only retained the seat in 2019 but in the February elections, confirmed the fact that he is a formidable political leader by defeating the NNPP which claimed the other two senatorial seats in his state.

Barau is one politician who has had credible experience both as a legislator and an administrator but has never been associated with any scandal or controversy.

For a legislator who has served as chairman of the Appropriation Committee of both the House of Representatives and Senate, he has been effective in the discharge of his duties and ensuring proper scrutiny of the budget.

He has served as the Chairman of the Kano State Investment and Properties Ltd, Commissioner of Science and Technology in Kano State, and member of a committee to review Nigeria’s Budgetary process.

In the legislature, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) of the Senate, and later Chairman of the same Committee and was reassigned to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETfund as the Chairman of the Committee.

Soft-spoken and easygoing, Barau enjoys the support and cooperation of his colleagues as he is accessible and humble while being effective in every leadership role he has held.

The President-elect would require such an experience, committed and easy-going leader to work with as president of the Senate for the success of his administration.

Tajudeen, who hails from Kwara State, can be reached at [email protected]