Senate Presidency- Akume, Tinubu Meet In Lagos

One of the top contenders for the Senate
presidency, Senator George Akume, and the
national leader of the All Progressives Congress,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday met at the
Lagos home of Tinubu.
Our correspondent learnt that at the meeting
which took place around 3pm, Tinubu told
Akume to shelve his ambition and support
Senator Ahmed Lawan, who represents Yobe-
North senatorial district in the 8th Senate.
The battle for the Senate presidency was between
the North-East and the North-Central. Akume,
who is currently the Senate Minority Leader,
represents Benue-North senatorial district in the
Senate.
Senator Bukola Saraki, who represents Kwara-
Central senatorial district in the North-Central
geopolitical zone, had also openly expressed his
intention to contest the number three seat in the
country.
However, it was learnt that the leadership of the
APC finally decided to zone the Senate presidency
to the North-East following ‘fresh developments’.
A reliable source in the APC told our
correspondent that Lawan had already been
backed by the current Senate President, David
Mark, and other members of the Peoples
Democratic Party.
He said, “Tinubu explained to Akume that Lawan
and Senator Mark are very close and already,
some members of the PDP support him. Lawan
has a good track record in the Senate and has
been backed by almost all the senators in the
North-East who feel the zone has been seriously
marginalised.
“The catch there is that if the APC members in the
Senate do not support Lawan and he wins the
Senate presidency with bloc votes from the PDP
and his friends in the North-East, he will be loyal
to the PDP and may sideline us just as the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu
Tambuwal, attributed his victory to the APC back
in 2011 even though he was a member of the
PDP.
“Mark will definitely do everything possible to
ensure that Akume does not emerge Senate
President if we pick Akume because they are not
on good terms. Tinubu told Akume that he
sacrificed his presidential ambition for the sake of
the party.
“Tinubu, therefore, urged Akume to settle for the
Deputy Senate presidency or Senate Majority
Leader.”
The 8th Senate will have 60 APC members while
the PDP will have 48. The number of senators in
the North-East is 18.
The source said Akume was also asked to step
down because the North-Central, where he hails
from, had been holding the Senate presidency
since 2007 while the North-East had never
presided over the upper chamber of the National
Assembly since independence.
He added that giving the North-East the seat
would also be a way of rewarding them for
giving the APC the second highest number of
votes during the presidential election.
He said, “The current Senate president is from
Benue State and has been in charge for eight
years. Would it be fair to also handover the
Senate presidency to another person from
Benue?
“The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, got
more than 2.5 million votes from the North-East
and this should be rewarded.”
It was learnt that Lawan, who just won a third
term in office, had already been accepted by
those close to the President-elect because he was
among those who led Buhari’s presidential
campaign in the then All Nigeria Peoples Party in
2007 in Yobe State.
The source told our correspondent that a
committee comprising Tinubu’s wife, Senator
Oluremi Tinubu; Senator Babafemi Ojudu,
Senator Gbenga Ashafa and Senator Ajayi
Boroffice had been set up to meet with the
aggrieved parties.