10th NASS: Don’t zone leardership, leave it open

Senator Ali Ndume has asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) to leave open and not zoned the leadership of the incoming 10th National Assembly.

Naija News reports that the lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District has opined that it would rather be better to leave zoning out of the selection of the leadership of the incoming 10th NASS.

According to him, the Senate President seat is not regionally based but purely a decision to be made by the lawmakers.

The lawmaker made his position known on the matter when he was featured on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

Ndume, who said he was awaiting his party to make a decision on the leadership of the incoming Senate and House of Representatives, noted that even though the constitution does not stop him from running for the Senate President’s seat, it’s not yet the appropriate time.

He advanced by saying that because the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu is from the South-West zone and the Vice-President-Elect, Kashim Shettima from the North-East does not stop lawmakers from the two zones from aspiring to the leadership of the incoming 10th National Assembly.

Ndume explained that “Of course, if I say I want to contest and the party say, ‘No, it’s not fair for the Senate President to come from the North or the North-East, do we then now say that we want to contest against the wish of the party which we did at one time and the aftermath was a bit clumsy and we don’t want to have a repetition of that?”

“For me, the leadership of the National Assembly should be open in the first instance.

“The Senate President is not supposed to be a regional President; it’s a Senate President of the Nigerian Senate.

“We have 109 senators. The leadership emergence is not clearly stated. Section 50 of the constitution states that the Senate President shall be elected among the members.”