ACF chieftain: Why south-east should not seek senate presidency

Musa Saidu, a chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), says the south-east should not seek the position of senate president because the geopolitical zone did not vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking with NAN on Tuesday, Saidu said the geopolitical zone gave the majority of its votes to the Labour Party (LP).

The south-east caucus in the senate had asked Bola Tinubu, president-elect, to ensure that a lawmaker from the zone becomes the senate president.

However, the party chose Godswill Akpabio, a former minister, for the position of senate president.

“I want to say without fear of contradiction that the south-east has no justification to start asking for the senate presidency of the 10th national assembly because it is not part of those who voted for the APC,” the ACF chieftain said.

“The south-east can’t be in contention for the senate presidency because its people didn’t vote for the APC. You are talking about fairness and justice, when you didn’t even vote for the APC during the 2023 general election.

“Other zones voted massively for the party and the president-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu, while you decided to give your votes entirely to the Labour Party.

“How can you come out to say that the president-elect should zone the senate presidency to the south-east, when you didn’t vote for him?

“Supposing he didn’t win the election, would he be in the position to zone the senate presidency?”

Saidu said the senate presidency is not “for free”, adding that “you have to work for it”.

“I think that the zoning of the senate presidency to south-south is not entirely a bad idea because the zone performed better in terms of voting for the APC in the last election,” he said.