Buhari’s Men Back Lawan For Senate Presidency

Indications are rife that political associates of President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari in the Senate have endorsed the bid by chairman of the Senate committee on public accounts Ahmad Lawan to become the next Senate President.  

All Progressives’ Congress (APC) senators-elect from Buhari’s north west zone met on Thursday in Abuja  and adopted Lawan as their consensus candidate, dimming hopes by other senators aspiring for the Number Three position.

Even though the Executive and legislative arms are independent, the tradition in Nigeria has been for the president to lend leverage to his preferred candidate in the race for the Senate Presidency.

The North west is the only zone with seven states and therefore has 21 senators against other zones which have 18 senators each. The South-east zone, which has five states, is the only zone with 15 senators. 

For close to three hours on Thursday, the North west senators met behind closed doors at the Abuja Hilton hotel to chart the course of who becomes the next Senate President. 

Sources close to the meeting which held under the chairmanship of Senator Abu Ibrahim said the senators weighed the aspirants for the office of Senate President and settled for Lawan who hails from Yobe State.

Senator Ibrahim, who presided over the meeting is from Buhari’s Katsina State and is  vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Communications. 

Chairman, committee on States and Local Governments, Kano State-born Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya and Senator-elect  Adamu Aliero served as alternate chairmen. Kebbi State-born Aliero served as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). 

Kano State Governor and Senator-elect Rabi’u Kwankwaso and former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Sani Yerima were the only senators-elect absent at the meeting. 

While Kwakwanso reported sent an emissary, Zamfara-born senator Yerima was said to have traveled for the burial of a close relation. 

A senator who attended the meeting said it was to send strong signals on the direction the next Senate Presidency would take.

“We have heard people making noises about getting the support of several senators. That is propaganda. What we have done is to set the agenda for the next Senate leadership.

“Yes, we are from the same geopolitical zone as Mr President-elect. The least we owe him is to ensure that he gets the best of relationships with the incoming leadership of the National Assembly.

“We realise that the task of rebuilding Nigeria is enormous and expectations high. We don’t want a situation where some power-hungry people will hijack the Senate Presidency for selfish ends.

“Our meeting was to take a common stand on which of the aspirants will best serve the interest of the people and of the incoming administration. At the end of the day, we settled for Ahmad Lawan who parades the best credentials for the office,” submitted the ranking senator.

“What we in the North west have done is to give political direction. Aside Lawan’s personal credentials, his North east zone gave tremendous support to APC. If you put out endorsement beside the recent one by the South west caucus, you will realise that he is home and dry.

“We do not want to begin the Eight Senate with rancour, but we also do not want to field dented candidates. President-elect Buhari’s best selling point  was his stand on corruption. It won’t therefore be right to present any candidate with corruption cases on his neck,” the senator declared.