Skip to main content

Senate Presidency: Akume disagrees with Tinubu, Akande on zoning

Image result for george akume pics
The Senate Minority Leader and front-line contender in the race for the Senate Presidency, Senator George Akume,  on Friday disagreed with the Pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress,  Chief Bisi Akande and a leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over their declaration that zoning arrangement won’t be used to determine the next Senate President.
Akume, who spoke with journalists in his Abuja residence on Friday evening, maintained that the party,  before now, had adopted a zoning arrangement which favoured the emergence of the president of the 8th senate, from the North Central,  being his geopolitical zone.
Akande had, in an interview with The Punch earlier this week,  said the party would not employ the use of zoning to determine the next senate president and that  anybody was free to fight for the position.
He had said, “We want the best man to occupy the position. But the trouble is that some people have been talking about zoning and we are asking questions. Is it zoning according to nationality?
“Within the North-Central alone, there are so many nationalities. Is it zoning according to religion? So, we want to be very careful so that we don’t introduce into our system what had not been there before.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“We want to be careful, otherwise, we won’t be able to produce the best. We are trying to select the best man. We don’t want to entertain what brought the PDP down.”
Also,  Tinubu, in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Thursday, said zoning will not be used to compromise the quality of leadership for the National Assembly adding that the party had decided to allow all those interested in the leadership of the federal parliament, to contest.
He had said,  “Merit will not be compromised. You have to be competent, you have to possess the kind of character, attributes of the leader. You have to be pan-Nigerian and be a very solid character to lead the National Assembly and that is what we are talking about.
“We would not use zoning to determine and compromise the credibility, the qualification of an individual. If you take zoning as discriminatory in some instances, you might compromise the quality of an individual. Let everybody aspire.”
But Akume insisted that zoning was part and parcel of the politics of Nigeria, arguing that Dr.Goodluck Jonathan became the  President of Nigeria as a result of zoning.
He said, “Even if zoning is not explicitly stated in the Constitution, there is always this letting to understanding that there must be fairness and balance in the occupation of strategic positions. We should not throw away zoning.
“In every zone, there are capable Nigerians that will hold their own in every endeavour. So, basically zoning is acceptable to me because it ensures stability. I have not heard from the party that they have jettisoned zoning.
“I remember, the last meeting we had, there was this issue that it has been zoned to North Central. I do not know it has been taken away because the party has not said they are taking it away but all I want to say is that the party made a comment on it.
“I am a faithful party man. I was part of the team that negotiated the merger of this party and I am also in the privilege position to talk about the dynamism of APC.”
Akume said there was nothing wrong with the North Central, and in particular, Benue State,   producing the Senate President all the time even as he argued that the North-West, has also, always produced the president of the country.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DEFECTIONS: Why Saraki, Dogara Others Must Heed Sen. Ibrahim's Call by Comrade Nwokoma Ndubuisi M.

The gale of defections in the National Assembly last week was followed by an advice from no one else than Sen. Abu Ibrahim that the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara and others in the fold of the All Progressives Congress APC that are still masquerading in the party should resign their membership of the party. This call which also implies that they resign their positions as leaders of the various arms of the National Assembly is yet to be complied with by those concerned as at the time of writing this piece Whatever their reasons for still staying put in the party may be, the fact of the matter is that their continued stay in the party has become a sore which must be extricated from the body.  As I watched through the proceedings of the defections on national television, I wept for the country for producing such leaders that lack morality despite all the party has given them politically which they ordin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rivers Governmnet, PDP Disagree Over $280 million Looan

The Rivers State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party in the state are currently at loggerheads over the request by the state Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, for a $280m loan for water and sanitation projects. While the state PDP said that the latest request for loan by the state government was unnecessary due to the resources accruing to the state through the federal allocation and internally generated revenue, the government said it was not true that the funds were to be used for 2015 elections. The state House of Assembly had on Monday endorsed Amaechi’s request for loan for water supply and sanitation projects. But the state PDP, in a statement, signed by the Special Adviser to its Chairman, Mr. Jerry Needam, said the request for loan was aimed at punishing the governor’s successor in 2015. The party called on members of the House of Assembly, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the African Development Bank and the World Bank not to honour the loan re...
Post a Comment
Read more

2019: Northern youths kick as Northwest APC lawmakers endorse Buhari

The leadership of the Arewa Youth Forum on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve any endorsement for the 2019 presidency. Reacting to a purported endorsement by some serving All Progressives Congress’s lawmakers from the Northwest in Kaduna, the AYF’s National President, Alhaji Gambo Gujungu, said Buhari was not fit to return as president in 2019. The AYF argued that with the killing spree all over the country, especially in the North, Buhari should serve his mandatory four years term and quit the stage for another Northerner. Gujungu noted that one sour point about President Buhari’s 2019 ambition was his claim that the killings across the country were being carried out by “desperate politicians”, yet he had not arrested even a single suspect. The AYF president, therefore, said Nigerians should blame the president for the attacks on innocent citizens. The AYF boss who spoke to our correspondent on phone on Monday, said the President’s cl...
Post a Comment
Read more