Senator Ahmed Lawan may emerged as the new Senate President when the 8th National Assembly is inaugurated next week.
Already, there are strong indications that despite desperate efforts by Senator Bukola Saraki and his camp, the most possible new Senate President according to five criteria said to have been set by President Muhammad Buhari is Senator Lawan.
His candidacy was the most preferable because he matched all five criteria required by the President of Nigeria and the APC from a person to fill this vacancy.
During the meeting at Aso Rock between the President of Nigeria and the members of the National Working Committee of the APC party, sources said that President Buhari finally announced Senator Ahmed Lawan, representing Yobe State, as the most possible new Senate President.
In Muhammadu Buhari’s opinion, Ahmed Lawan matches best all five criteria which include the fact that the next Senate president shouldn’t be embroiled in any of major corruption scandals, which could cast a shadow on his candidacy in public’s opinion.
The second criterion required from the candidate is that he should be one of the most valuable political figures among senators qualifying for the post.
The third criterion is that the person should represent another geo-political zone than the person who used to be the president of Senate.
“The president explained that the North Central part of Nigeria has held the Senate presidency for long enough. He therefore disclosed that the post should be allowed to move to another geo-political zone,” a source, who declined to be identified, informed the press on the results of the meeting.
Muhammadu Buhari also reportedly stated that the new Senate president should be from the zone which gave the majority of votes to the APC during recent general election.
Combining with the third criterion, it means that since the North East zone gave the ruling party the second largest number of votes in recent elections, the person to fill this position should represent exactly this geo-political zone of Nigeria.
The fifth criterion seems to be that Muhammadu Buhari simply doesn’t favour Bukola Saraki, despite the fact that many influential APC members are backing his candidacy.
The APC’s national chairman, Odigie Oyegun, who is backing Bukola Saraki, expressed his dissatisfaction with Muhammadu Buhari’s choice, while Bola Tinubu, advocating Ahmed Lawan for the post, supported the President.
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