Diversity, regional balancing, fairness crucial to emergence of next senate president – Basiru

Senator Ajibola Basiru, representing Osun Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Wednesday, said that the decision of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to zone the senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives of the 10th National Assembly must be determined by three crucial factors which he identified as consideration of Nigeria’s diversity, regional balancing and fairness, towards promoting inclusiveness.
Senator Ajibola Basiru, who lost his re-election in the 2023 general elections on the platform of the APC, and would not be returning the 10th Senate, speaking on Channels Television Sunrise Daily monitored by National Daily from Lagos, said that competence and capability are not enough to determine the emergence of the presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly. According to him, “the determination of the emergence of the presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly must consider fairness, regional balance and diversity, which include religion.” He emphasised that since APC has produced a Muslim President from the southwest, a Muslim Vice President from the northeast, and has a Muslim National Chairman from the north central, the party should consider the diversity of the country in zoning the presiding officers of the senate and House of Representatives. This, he acknowledged, gave credence to the demand for zoning the senate president to the southeast or south-south.
Senator Basiru, however, noted that the emergence of the senate president or speaker would be decided by the federal lawmakers, not any external political force. He admitted that the party leadership could provide guidelines through zoning but not deciding on specific individual.
Basiru said that zoning the senate president to the southeast or the south-south would encourage regional balancing and inclusiveness in government. Noting that he would not participate in determining the next senate president, Basiru stated that the southwest, northeast and north central already occupy exalted positions in the party and the incoming government, therefore, the National Assembly presiding officers should be zoned to the southeast, south-south; while the speaker of the House of Representatives should be zoned to the northwest.
Basiru emphasised that the senate president should not be a prerogative or exclusive opportunity for the southeast, saying that the south-south has a good chance for the senate president of the 10th National Assembly, adding that the zone has competent representatives for the senate president.
Basiru noted that the votes from the southeast for the APC in the 2023 presidential election was low; noting that votes also came from the south-south for the APC.
The senator said that the southeast had a candidate in the presidential election, who is Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). He stated that campaign for the APC was difficult in the southeast during the general elections because of intimidation in the region.
While supporting power sharing in diverse zones – president to the southwest, vice president to the northeast, and others, Basiru observed that he does not consider the power sharing arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999, zoning the president to the southwest, vice president to the northeast, senate president to the southeast and speaker to the north west – as model of power sharing in Nigeria. He was of the view that the arrangement reflected the realities of that time, which he said are not the same with the realities of today.
“I don’t see the leadership arrangement in 1999 as a model. It was the realities of time; the realities are the same today, they are different this time,” Senator Basiru declared.