The yet-to-be inaugurated 10th National Assembly [NASS] of Nigeria should be a fulfillment of the lofty promise that the next phase of democratic governance holds for the country. Its shape and character should be such that will depict adequate balance and capacity that are necessarily required for the effective discharge of its functions.
Both the on-going process of the emergence of the NASS leadership and the interest it is speedily generating are a pointer to the immeasurable value of the legislature and its indispensability in democratic governance. The fundamental expectation that the next federal legislature, particularly the senate, will make up for all the observed lapses of the ones that have preceded it has already formed the basis of the utmost concerns over the varying proposals for the kind of leadership it should have.
As the race for the senate presidency heightens, the various interest groups have continued to make cases for their respective candidates, which is a perfect norm that is popularly upheld by democracies across the world. The competition for the third biggest position in the country is already a process that has effectively engaged the various segments of the citizenry, with each one or a section of it tirelessly trying to promote arguments that are favorable to its preferred contender.
It is in a bid to ensure that an informed choice of a senate president is made that the various stakeholders have embarked on a search for the most qualified of all the contenders, whose emergence will, therefore, take care of most of the concerns that are being incessantly expressed over the structure and composition of the senate leadership as well the performance of the entire organ. Spread of positions across the various sections of the country, diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds as well as capacity and records of performance of the individual candidates are issues of tremendous concern for the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC], President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, senators-elect and the entire Nigerians.
Meanwhile, all the probes into the certain realities about the contest are leading to the realization of the fact that the out-going Governor of Ebonyi State and the Senator-elect for Ebonyi South Senatorial District, Chief [Engineer] Dave Umahi, is in possession of all the qualifications for the job. He has appeared to have satisfied all the basic requirements that are most critical to the election of a President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly as a result of which the preference for him is fast becoming stronger and more obvious.
This round of contest for the senate presidency has come at a time when the issue of equity within both the party and the government is most fundamental and therefore needs to be sufficiently addressed in order to maintain balance in the power structure of the country. Even with the victory of the APC, in spite of all the complaints over its same-faith formula which has produced Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima, both Muslims, as president-elect and vice president-elect respectively, there is still a huge demand for the observance of equity by, as a matter of necessity, not only allowing but also facilitating the emergence of the next president of the senate from the South-East.
Afterall, ‘equity’ is the word used by Umahi to campaign for Tinubu in the South-East by assuring the people in the entire zone that the APC government would apply the principle of equity in the distribution of positions across the country. A lot of the South-Easteners have consequently already developed the confidence that the zone will get its fair share of positions.
The Ebonyi State Governor fits into all the reasonable calculations on the on-going search for the most competent senate president because he is not just like any other with whom he shares sectional, ethnic or religious backgrounds. No any other Igbo/Christian contender can be like him in terms of acceptability/political influence in the South-East, contribution to the party and performance as a governor.
The man has already made his submission with which a lot of Nigerians have fully concurred. The belief he expressed to journalists after a recent meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in the Presidential Villa Abuja that his emergence as the next Nigeria’s Senate President will deepen democracy in the country is a conviction that is widely shared among all concerned Nigerians.
He is a model governor who has successfully lifted Ebonyi out of the bracket of the poorest states in the South-East in particular and the country in general through effective prioritization and prudent management of resources. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS] has fully noted in one of its reports that the achievements the Ebonyi State Government under him has recorded in the fight against poverty are unrivalled as evident in the tremendous improvement in areas of healthcare, agriculture, education, infrastructure, etc.
The in-coming administration under Tinubu will surely need a person like the out-going Ebonyi State Governor as head of the legislature because of the vastness of his experience as a politician who can always deploy his expertise for the purpose of the management of the affairs of the senate and, by extension, the National Assembly. The country’s next presidency will find the skills of Chief Umahi as most useful in the provision of the kind of governance that can guarantee the delivery of democracy dividends for Nigerians.
The senators-elect as the most critical stakeholders in the election of the next senate president need to worry a lot about the image of the institution, especially in the next dispensation. Their individual and collective decisions on the next president should be such that are guided by the consideration of the absolute need for the emergence of a person whose character can automatically translate into an enhanced performance of the National Assembly.
Predictably, the next phase of democratic governance will come along with its own challenges, some familiar and others fresh, but all serious enough to demand complete attention. The new features of the power equation will inevitably necessitate the adoption of certain key measures for the management of the foreseen realities as a result of which appreciable national stability can be achieved.
At almost all levels, it has been firmly established that the out-going Ebonyi State Governor and Senator-elect Chief Dave Umahi is, by all standards, the candidate who enjoys the largest quantity of public confidence with regards to the race for the senate presidency and should therefore be given the chance he truly deserves. In him is a potential President of the 10th Senate who can take the institution to the next level. Why not him?
