Why the North-central APC feels entitled to the Senate President slot

by Ranti Joseph

The North Central caucus of the All Progressive Party (APC) met in Abuja and asked the party to zone the position of the senate presidency to the zone.

The APC caucus in the North Central in a communiqué signed by the Zonal chairman of the party, Zakari Ede, and the six states chairmen in region, on Wednesday said it was clear that APC will form the majority in the forthcoming 8th Assembly based on the results of the general elections.

Their demand as they stated was hinged on the fact that the zone performed well in the election by giving adequate support to the party, adding that ceding the seat of senate president to them will be a reward for their performance.

They insisted that the North Central being a vulnerable zone, its success and victory should not be taken for granted stating that it would only be just and equitable for the position of the Senate President to be allotted to the North Central.

The communique read in parts, “Following our party’s overwhelming victory at the National Assembly polls, it is clear that our party will form the majority in the forthcoming 8th Assembly.

“Therefore, in due course the Senate President will be chosen from one of our Distinguished Senators.

“Consequently, at a meeting of Chairmen of the North Central Zone held on the 15th day of April, 2015, we deliberated at length on the issue of Senate Presidency and after series of analysis, consultation and exhaustive deliberations, we made the following observations:

“Record shows that the North Central, historically being a PDP zone generally tends to vote for PDP at the national level.

“We further observed the followings facts among others, that the block vote of the North Central, which is over 2.4m, is same as South West. The North Central delivered 13 Senators same as North East.

“The North Central also delivered 100 per cent state Governors as North West compared to the North East with only four Governors.”

It read further; “It is our strong belief that these efforts and performances need to be rewarded since our role was pivotal to our party’s success at the national level.

“It was expected that the North West and North East would largely vote APC, however, it was crucial that the North Central should also deliver its votes for our party to succeed. It was on this, we believe, that contributed in no small measure to our party’s victory.

“It must be noted that since 1999, the North Central Zone even under the PDP has been ‎taking third position and with our recent performance, we equally believe the Zone should have the same third position.

“It would be recalled that our campaign in the North was not easy as issue of religion, ethnicity and tribalism was propped up and despite all these challenges, we went out to deliver for our party.

“We also like to put on record that North Central states delivered five Governors as we won all our governorship election, delivered 13 Senators and other National Assembly members including the members of State Houses of Assembly‎ to APC as against the norm. It will be unfair to be treated otherwise after these performances.

“The argument that North Central is always in third position has to do with PDP to be precise. Therefore, if the zone had performed and delivered under the APC, we believe we should be adequately rewarded as it was being done under the PDP.

“We need to emphasize here that North Central is a vulnerable zone and our success and victory should not be taken for granted.

“On the basis of the above reasoning, we therefore came to the conclusion and we humbly wish ‎to state that, it would only be just and equitable for the position of the Senate President to be allotted to the North Central Zone and we hereby demand for same. ‎

“Our resolution is borne out of the fact that by every consideration, North Central Zone deserves to present the next Senate President on behalf of our great party.

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