Less than 24 hours to the 9th National Assembly principal office elections, Senator Ali Ndume (APC-Borno) has never been lonelier than this in his political career in the Senate thanks to his hard head.
His insistence in going against the party decision, and defying President Muhammadu Buhari in the choice of Senate president has apparently isolated him in the Senate and the party.
As all APC’s senators abandon Ndume, all the party’s state governors have also condemned him to isolation by backing the candidacy of Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan.
Even the PDP senators he is banking on are already moving on to the winning side. No fewer than 38 of the 44 opposition senators have endorsed Lawan.
The governors, under the aegis of the Progressives Governors Forum, took the decision at a meeting held at the Kebbi Governor’s Lodge on Sunday night in Abuja.
The Governor of Kebbi, Atiku Bagudu, and Chairman of the Forum while briefing reporters at the end of meeting, said the governors took the decision in compliance with the directive of the party’s national leadership.
He used the opportunity of the meeting, which was the first after the general elections, to welcome newly elected governors into the forum.
Mr Bagudu asked all party members in the National Assembly to vote for Lawan in the Senate, and Fem Gajabiamila in the House, saying the forum was solidly behind the decision of the party.
He added that the forum believed that the leadership of the party took the right decision when they opted to support Messrs Lawan and Gbajabiamila for the principal offices.
On other offices in the ninth National Assembly, Mr Bagudu said “they were party offices and that the party would take a decision on them.”
He also said the governors were solidly behind President Muhammadu Buhari as the party’s leader, assuring that they would work with him to take the country to the next level.
The governors present at the meeting were the governors of Edo, Kwara, Kogi, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kano, Jigawa, Ekiti, Osun, and Lagos states.
Others are the governors of Gombe and Niger, as well as the Deputy Governors of Borno and Kaduna states.
Governors of Katsina, Ogun, Ondo and Yobe states were absent from the meeting.