10th NASS: Why Leadership Should Be Open, Not Zoned – Ndume

Ali Ndume, the lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District, has justified why the leadership of the yet-to-be inaugurated 10th National Assembly should not zoned to a particular geopolitical extraction of Nigeria, Vanguard reports.

Ndume, who spoke during an interview on Channels Television on Sunday, argued that the Senate President is not supposed to be a regional President.

He said, “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,” he said.

The lawmaker said he is waiting on his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress APC to make a decision on the leadership of the incoming Senate and House of Representatives.

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

Recall that the APC won majority of the legislative seats during the elections with over 55 Senate seats out of 109 and over 160 out of 360 House of Representatives seats. 

Ndume, however, said the time is not yet ripe for him to be the Senate President, even though the constitution does not stop him from running.

He noted that the fact that his party produced the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu from the South-West zone and the Vice-President-Elect, Kashim Shettima from the North-East does not stop lawmakers from the two zone from aspiring for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.

Ndume said, “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?”