The Northwest Progressives Forum (NPF) has cautioned President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to beware of any form of ambush by politicians seeking to take undue advantage of the party’s electoral victory to divert the Senate President slot to undeserving geopolitical zones.
Addressing, a press conference in Kaduna on Saturday, the group’s coordinator, Nasir Dambatta said they are concerned by the ongoing regional struggle for the position of the President of the 10th Senate that has been going on since the conclusion of this year’s presidential election and the emergence of Tinubu as president-elect.
Dambatta said they are aware of the several moves and counter-manourvres by regionalist political actors seeking to place their respective zones at advantage where it is not deserved.
According to him, official presidential election result figures showed that the North West produced the highest number of votes for Tinubu which makes it the natural and legitimate claimant to the number three seat.
“While we do not expect President-elect Tinubu and the APC to give to any zone, not least the North-West, what it does not deserve, we however feel it would only be fair to reward the people that toiled for and earned it.
“The rule of fairness, justice and ordinary decency demands in this circumstance, the North-West, and not any other zone, deserves to be rewarded for its commitment to the APC and the Asiwaju ideals which it amply proved at the polls.
“We therefore join the call for the APC and the president-elect to act justly and fairly by zoning the position of the Senate President to the region that gave him more than 30 percent of his winning votes,” Dambatta said.
The group called the attention to the standard northern tradition of never compromising national unity whenever given the opportunity and cannot afford the residing of Executive, Legislative and Judiciary Powers in one region.
“It is also on record that the North has been tested and trusted with power making the region eminently eligible for the Senate Presidency to stabilise and balance power,” he said.
The North-West, according to the Group, also has the record of giving the APC ticket the most volume of votes which positions the region as the natural and legimate claimant to Senate Presidency.
“We feel obligated, after considering so many factors, to suggest that when eventually the slot is micro-zoned to the Northwest, the person to that is eminently competent for the job is former Zamfara State Governor, AbdulAziz Yari,” the statement read.
The Group said it has critically examined the credentials of all the candidates being presented for the job, particularly from the North-West before arriving at the conclusion that Yari is most suitable to be the next President of the Nigerian Senate.
“At the risk of overstating the issue, we are convinced that among all the people rooting for the Senate presidency from the North-West, only Yari possesses the proven integrity, honesty and experience necessary for such a position.
“We therefore join other groups in categorically endorsing Senator AbdulAziz Yari as the most competent for the job and call on stakeholders in the zone to do give him maximum support.
“We specifically call on Asiwaju to wade in and ensure the zoning of the Senate presidency to the Northwest and to move in favour of Yari,” Dambatta stressed.
