By Ogochukwu Isioma
Barely three months away from the inauguration of the 9th National Assembly, the battle for the Senate Presidency is gaining momentum by the day, Igbere TV reports.
With certificates of return issued to Senators-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday, the battle for the nation’s number three seat seems to have shifted to the South East as both the returning and new Senators from the zone are making move to grab the Senate plum position.
This is even as some Senators and party leaders from other geo-political zones are said to be drumming support for the senate presidency to be zoned to the South East.
Impeccable sources told Igbere TV that a section of the Northern political establishment, including Senators from the three Northern zones — North East, North West and North Central, are solidly supporting the rotation of the Senate Presidency to the South East, and have, in fact, started reaching out to political leaders in the South-South and South-West for that purpose.
A source privy to the move, revealed that most of the Senators and leaders are rallying support for former governor of Abia, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu to clinch the Senate President position.
Igbere TV reliably gathered that it was on the basis of the understanding that the Senate Presidency position might be ceeded to the South-East that some Northern Senators, including Senator Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano) have been gunning for the position of Deputy Senate President.
With 65 APC Senators, PDP 37 and YPP 1, so far declared, the ruling party, APC is sure of clinching to the number three position in the country.
Although, there has been some insinuations that Dr. Kalu cannot preside over the 9th Senate as ‘first timer’. However, the ranking rules confer on former House members same privileges as former senators.
Kalu, by virtue of his election on the platform of the now defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) into the 593-member House of Representatives in the July 4, 1992 National Assembly to herald the aborted Third Republic, is considered a ranking senator.
He served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1992 to 1993 and held two key positions of Deputy Chairman of the Finance and Internal Affairs Committees. It is on record that Dr. Kalu moved the famous Dual-Citizenship Rights Bill in the House, which was later signed into law.
Similarly, the South East leaders have dismissed the notion that Dr. Kalu cannot be in the senate leadership as ‘first timer’, citing a precedent. They recall that former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, was a first timer in the Senate when in June 2015, he assumed the position of the PDP Senate Minority Leader.
“Kalu is qualified for the job. He is not a first timer; he was a legislator in the aborted third republic so he is a ranking National Assembly member,” an APC chieftain from the South East told Igbere TV.
While endorsing the former governor for Senate President, Senator Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment had said; “We have someone that is ranking now (from the South East). We have Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. He was a legislator in the Federal House of Representatives during the military regime, it’s counted, because it was a National Assembly, so he has got some ranking. Therefore, Orji Uzor Kalu is qualified to be the next Senate President.”
Meanwhile, former governors who are ranking senators in the incoming 9th Session of the National Assembly have resolved to ensure that one of them emerges the next Senate President, Igbere TV reports.
The ex-governors, it was gathered, are reaching out to the Presidency and the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) to make case for the South East in the zoning arrangements of APC.
To actualise this, Senators and political party leaders cutting across the three visible parties in the zone — APC, PDP and APGA are rallying round former governor of Abia, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu who has just been elected to represent Abia North in the upper legislative chamber.
It was also learnt that it was on the strength of the promise of the Senate Presidency to the South East that, during the presidential election, South East governors, sensing that President Buhari was headed for victory, agreed to work for the APC in their states to enable the President score 25 per cent votes to achieve an outright victory and avoid second ballot with Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
It is on record that Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi, had openly declared support for President Muhammadu Buhari, during the 2019 presidential election.
“I have always said that APC is one man and that’s the president. The president is a man with good character and that’s why we are supporting him and he is supporting Ebonyi state,” Umahi said.
Umahi, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor, while addressing state house correspondents after a meeting with Buhari, also said he would wish to go for a second term.
“Any first term governor would want to go for a second term. And if that’s what you wish yourself, you should be honest enough to wish another person the same,” he said.
“Since Mr President is doing his first term and I am doing my first term, it’s my wish to re-contest and I will as well wish the president the same to re-contest.”
While reacting to the allegation that PDP governors in the zone negotiated with the APC and top echelon of the presidency in the heat of the election for 25 per cent votes for Buhari, Umahi said, “Why do we need to negotiate for the sex of a child when the child has been given birth to?. Ebonyi state is very dear in the heart of the president. If APC will get a vote in Ebonyi state, it will get vote by the President alone and nobody else.”
This was even as Umahi promised to mobilize at least 2,000 PDP members to receive President Muhammadu Buhari at the stadium for the APC presidential rally in Ebonyi, a promise he actually fulfilled on the D-day.
