Senate Presidency: Akume Disagrees With Tinubu, Akande On Zoning

The Senate Minority Leader and front-line
contender in the race for the Senate Presidency,
Senator George Akume, on Friday disagreed with
the Pioneer National Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress, Chief Bisi Akande and a
leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over
their declaration that zoning arrangement won’t
be used to determine the next Senate President.
Akume, who spoke with journalists in his Abuja
residence on Friday evening, maintained that the
party, before now, had adopted a zoning
arrangement which favoured the emergence of
the president of the 8th senate, from the North
Central, being his geopolitical zone.
Akande had, in an interview with The Punch
earlier this week, said the party would not
employ the use of zoning to determine the next
senate president and that anybody was free to
fight for the position.
He had said, “We want the best man to occupy
the position. But the trouble is that some people
have been talking about zoning and we are asking
questions. Is it zoning according to nationality?
“Within the North-Central alone, there are so
many nationalities. Is it zoning according to
religion? So, we want to be very careful so that
we don’t introduce into our system what had not
been there before.”
“We want to be careful, otherwise, we won’t be
able to produce the best. We are trying to select
the best man. We don’t want to entertain what
brought the PDP down.”
Also, Tinubu, in an interview with journalists in
Abuja on Thursday, said zoning will not be used
to compromise the quality of leadership for the
National Assembly adding that the party had
decided to allow all those interested in the
leadership of the federal parliament, to contest.
He had said, “Merit will not be compromised. You
have to be competent, you have to possess the
kind of character, attributes of the leader. You
have to be pan-Nigerian and be a very solid
character to lead the National Assembly and that
is what we are talking about.
“We would not use zoning to determine and
compromise the credibility, the qualification of an
individual. If you take zoning as discriminatory in
some instances, you might compromise the
quality of an individual. Let everybody aspire.”
But Akume insisted that zoning was part and
parcel of the politics of Nigeria, arguing that
Dr.Goodluck Jonathan became the President of
Nigeria as a result of zoning.
He said, “Even if zoning is not explicitly stated in
the Constitution, there is always this letting to
understanding that there must be fairness and
balance in the occupation of strategic positions.
We should not throw away zoning.
“In every zone, there are capable Nigerians that
will hold their own in every endeavour. So,
basically zoning is acceptable to me because it
ensures stability. I have not heard from the party
that they have jettisoned zoning.
“I remember, the last meeting we had, there was
this issue that it has been zoned to North Central.
I do not know it has been taken away because
the party has not said they are taking it away but
all I want to say is that the party made a
comment on it.
“I am a faithful party man. I was part of the team
that negotiated the merger of this party and I am
also in the privilege position to talk about the
dynamism of APC.”
Akume said there was nothing wrong with the
North Central, and in particular, Benue State,
producing the Senate President all the time even
as he argued that the North-West, has also,
always produced the president of the country.