As the battle for the leadership of the National Assembly hots up ahead of the June 11, 2019 inauguration date, the Senator representing Kano South Senatorial District, Senator Kabiru Gaya has said that a zone which produced only two Senators cannot produce the Deputy Senate President ahead of the zone with 17 Senator.
The former Kano state governor who spoke in an interview with some reporters in Abuja said the north-west zone with 17 Senators gave the party about 6 million votes which cannot be easily wished away.
According to him, with the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives going to the South West which already has the Vice President, there was nothing wrong in giving the Deputy Senate President to the North West which has the President.
He argued that giving the position of Deputy Senate President to the North West will be one of the ways of consolidating the party in the zone, while the south-south and the south-east are accommodated in the other leadership positions.
Gaya who is aspiring for the Deputy Senate President position said “my reasons for saying nobody should produce the deputy senate president rather than the North West is because we produced 6 million votes and in this kind of politics, you don’t throw away where you are strong.
“You will have to consolidate the party because this last election was made possible because of Buhari and Kano factors. What we are saying is that, because of that, quiet number of what we had, Kano alone had 1.4 million and we have 6 million registered voters.
“So, what we are saying is that if we could give speaker to the South West, I can see no reason why we can’t get Deputy Senate President in the North. If we are saying we have the president, fine, South has the Vice President and I believe it is better we consolidate on our positions now. Then that will attract even the other two zones to also work hard for the APC because I know that President Buhari did a lot in all these states.”
On how other zones should be accommodated in the principal offices of 9th Senate, Gaya who is returning to the Senate for the fourth time said “You know we need the South East, we need the South-South and the remaining four zones.
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“You see there are other positions like Senate Leader which is also a very important position, we have Chief Whip which is also important because if you give all other zones positions, and you deny North West which has the highest number of votes – 6 million votes that would not be good. What it means is that you want to throw away 6 million votes.
“I’m saying we need the South East, we need South-South. But you cannot throw away where you have 20 senators. Though with the present record we now have 17, which is unfortunate, you cannot give Deputy Senate President to where you have only two senators.”
While saying he does not believe in dropping statistics of Senators behind his ambition, Gaya expressed confidence that he has over 70 per cent chances of emerging the Deputy Senate President.
Other aspirants for the position of the Deputy Senate President are: Former Abia State governor and Senator-elect, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.
‘Zone with two Senators can’t produce Deputy Senate President’ - The Nation Newspaper
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