SIR: Now that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has retained its majority in the National Assembly based on the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the struggle is on for which geopolitical zone should produce the senate presidency. I believe that it is the turn of the South-south.
While there are political insinuations that the position should be zoned to the Southeast to foster inclusiveness and national cohesion, I beg to differ. Since 2015 till date, the Southeast has shown hostility and hatred towards the APC. Members of the party have been attacked for supporting the party and if the videos on social media about voting in the just concluded elections are reliable, there was massive voter suppression in the region due to threats and intimidation of members of other parties, principally the APC. This is despite the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari has carried out a lot of infrastructural projects in the region.
Some of these projects include the Second Niger Bridge, the Enugu –Port Harcourt road, the Onitsha – Enugu road etc. By its votes, it has shown that the APC can win the presidency many times over without securing a single vote in the region. Why should the APC zone a powerful and sensitive position like the senate presidency to a region that has consistently given it dross in return for gold? Why should they produce a senate president that will have almost zero followership in his region?
Politics is a game of numbers not sentiments. The only reason why President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu went for a Muslim-Muslim ticket was because he reasoned that was the only way to emerge victorious at the polls. His political calculations turned out right. The South-south delivered close to a million votes to the APC compared to the measly a hundred thousand votes that the party secured in the Southeast in the presidential election. The South-south also delivered the required 25% across all the states in the region and produced seven senators compared to the Southeast which failed to deliver 25% in any state and produced six senators.
The APC currently has more elected officials in the South-south than the Southeast. This shows that the APC has more acceptance in the region and the people are beginning to turn their backs against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which hitherto, had a stronghold in the region. Zoning the senate presidency to the South-south will help the APC to increase its national spread as it will serve in no small measure in converting the zone to an APC stronghold.
Since the advent of the Fourth Republic, the South-south has yet to produce the senate president. The highest position the region has gotten in the National Assembly is the deputy senate president; yet it has done wonders with that as the number of senators in the region recorded an increase in the recent polls. Imagine what would happen should the APC decide to zone the senate presidency to the region.
The South-south is the goose that lays the golden eggs which feeds the Nigerian federation and it would be unfair for us to be cheated in the sharing of power after we have exhibited political maturity by not putting all our eggs in one basket unlike the Southeast. We deserve the senate presidency.
•Peter Ovie Akus,
New Jersey, USA.