Group says South-South should produce Senate President of 10th Assembly
Group says South-South should produce Senate President of 10th Assembly
By: Our Correspondent
A group under the auspices of Arewa Network of Social Reformers (ANSR) has stated that the South-South region, which helped President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to obtain the required 25% of 2/3rd of states to win the presidential elections, should be rewarded with the seat of the Senate President of the 10th Assembly.
Engineer Idris Musa, the President of ANSR, made this assertion during a press conference held in Abuja on Wednesday.
The statement added that the Southeast worked against the President-elect and gave all their votes to Peter Obi, stating that the region should not be rewarded where it did not sow at the expense of the well-deserving people of the South-South zone.
ANSR further said that the Southeast had already had its share, having occupied the position five times since the commencement of the Fourth Republic, while the South-South has not had the opportunity to occupy the position of the Senate President since the inception of the Fourth Republic.
“Southeast gave Tinubu 0/5 of their states, South-South gave him 5/6 of their states, Southeast gave Tinubu 6 percent of their votes while South-South gave him 30 percent of their votes.
“The Southeast senators that won their seats selfishly worked for themselves only in the election and neglected Tinubu. Thus, they had huge numbers for themselves while Tinubu had almost nothing from their places.
“The South-South senators that won their seats worked for both themselves and Tinubu. Thus, they both had huge numbers of their places.
“The entire Southeast zone gave Tinubu a paltry 127,000 votes. Cross River State alone, which is not even the highest in their zone, gave him 130,000 votes, and as a zone, South-South gave him 800,000 votes.
“The trend of APC’s votes in the Southeast is falling in every election since 2015, while the party’s votes in the South-South have been rising in every election since 2015,” the ANSR president explained.
The group, however, disclosed that Senator Godswill Akpabio has the democratic credentials to lead the 10th Assembly because he has both administrative and legislative acumen.
“He has exemplified leadership with his uncommon transformation agenda as an eight-year governor of Akwa Ibom and has served the Red Chamber as its Minority Leader, in which he has distinguished himself in both capacities that in leadership and responsibilities.
“It is on record that Godswill Akpabio stepped down for the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during the APC presidential primaries in Abuja; the man has made a lot of sacrifices and has been supporting the APC,” he said.
Engr. Musa disclosed that ANSR, which is a coalition of 26 young professionals from the 19 Northern states plus Abuja, tagged the press conference with a Hausa word “Raba gardama,” meaning balancer, a unifying factor, the apostle of uncommon transformations.
“We are openly rooting our support for His Excellency, Senator Godswill Akpabio, but before we took this decision, we made a wide range of consultations with different shades of opinions and critical stakeholders within our region to seek their words of wisdom and support; they have since blessed the motive of our struggle,” he added.
