South-South Deserves Senate Presidency – PANDEF

Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), has said the South-South geopolitical zone of the country deserves to produce the president of the senate in the 10th National Assembly.

It therefore called on leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which has majority of the senators-elect to zone the position of the senate presidency to the South-South geopolitical zone in the interest of equity and fairness.

PANDEF, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt yesterday, said the last time someone from the zone tasted the office of the senate president was in 1979/1983 when late Senator Joseph Wayas from Cross River State was elected into the office.

The statement called on the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, APC key stakeholders and senators-elect from the various political parties to cede the position of the senate president to the South-South geopolitical zone.

It reads in part, “As maneuvering intensify over the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, elders and leaders of Niger Delta, under the auspices of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), ask the leadership of the All Progressives Congress , which has a majority of senators-elect, to zone the position of senate president to the South-South geopolitical zone, in the interest of equity and fairness.

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“It is imperative to stress that the last time someone from the present South-South states occupied the office of senate president was during the 2nd Republic (1979/1983), when the late Distinguished Senator Joseph Wayas, from Cross River State, was elected, first in October 1979 and; again, in October 1983, before that Republic was truncated on 31st December 1983.

“Earlier, Dennis Chukwudebe Osadebey, of blessed memory, from Asaba, Delta State, held the position of president of the Nigerian senate in 1960; he later became the pioneer premier of the former Mid-Western region, upon its creation in 1963.”

“In the present dispensation, since 1999, the South-South zone has not had a turn in the office of the senate president.

“The region has had stints at the lower levels of deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, between 1999 and 2007, under the Rt. Hon. Chibudom Nwuche, and the Rt. Hon. Austin Opara, both from Rivers State. Currently, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, from Delta State, is deputy senate president.”