The President-elect, Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been urged to as a matter of necessity, pay kindness with kindness by ensuring that the Senate Presidency for the next Assembly goes to the North-West subregion of the country.
The call was made by a group known as Northern Youths Assembly (NOYA) in a press statement signed by its National Coordinator, Dr. Suleiman Mustapha Gombe, copies of which were made available to Journalists in Bauchi on Sunday.
According to the group, “It is high time Nigeria’s President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, rewarded Sen. Barau Jibrin by coming out to support his Senate presidential aspiration.”
The reason for such according to the group is, “Because, had the APC lost Senator Barau Jibrin in the course of the protracted crisis that nearly cost the party its head in Kano State when Seven serving Nigerian lawmakers from the state, under the leadership of His Excellency, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau formed a formidable faction called, G7 to challenge what they considered as gross injustice meted out to them by the leadership of the APC in Kano State, 85% of the total votes scored in Kano State by the APC during the last presidential election in which he (Tinubu) emerged victorious would have been wasted in voting for the NNPP’s presidential candidate who was/is only popular in Kano State.”
The group further stated that, “It was Barau Jibrin’s unrivaled popularity, generosity and proudest achievements that saved the party from collapsing in totality in Kano State!”
“But, had Senator Barau Jibrin not had the mind to endure all the incessant verbal attacks, mockery, innuendos and side-swipes from particularly the State party Chairman, Abdullahi Abbas, he would have jettisoned the APC for either the PDP or the NNPP, the APC would have ended up scoring nothing above 120,000 votes in Kano and the story would have been both disgusting and disheartening to every level-headed member of the governing APC all over the country,” the group stated.
It added that, “And the gap between Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu would have been a wafer-thin which could have turned the table against the APC.”
According to the group, “We in the Northern Youths Assembly (NOYA) deem it right to call on the President-elect, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu to have the back of this gentleman who is full of beans to help him save this country from drifting into the abyss of all sorts of evils ranging from insecurity, political instability, economic morass and the menacing unemployment among our productive youths across the country.”
It stressed that, “Nigerians are fully aware that a man of Bola Tinubu’s unsoiled character and moral standing, will never ever for whatever reason support people with questionable characters and denoted antecedents who are presently neck-deep into financial crimes as they report to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a weekly basis for further criminal investigations bordering on financial misappropriation worth billions of Naira.”
“Moreover, in Nigeria’s political history, the people of the North-West geopolitical zone have never produced the Senate President at whatever time since the advent of democracy in Nigeria. Hence as a matter of factly and for the sake of justice, equity and fairness this time around the senate presidential seat should be automatically zoned to the North-West zone where Senator Barau I. Jibrin hails from,” The group called.
It explained that, “Out of the 14 Senate Presidents that we have had in this country from 1960 to date, none was from the North-Western part of this country.
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1960, NCNC; Dennis Osadebay, 1960-1963, NCNC; Nwafor Orizu, 1963-1966 NCNC; Joseph Wayas, 1979- 1983, NPN; Iyorchia Ayu, 1992-1993, SDP; Ameh Èbúté, 1993, SDP; Evan Enwerem, 1999, PDP; Chuba Okadigbo, 1999-2000, PDP; Anyim Pius Anyim, 2000-2003, PDP; Adolphus Wabara, 2003-2005, PDP; Ken Nnamani, 2005-2007, PDP; David Mark, 2007-2015, PDP; Bukola Saraki, 2015 -2019, APC; Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan, APC, 2019 till date APC.”
Northern Youths stated that, “In fact, only Four out of them are/were ideally from the North and three of them came from the North- Central, that is, Iyorchia Ayu (Benue), David Mark (Benue) and Bukola Saraki (Kwara) while the incumbent Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan Ibrahim (Yobe) hails from the North-East.”
“To cap it all, the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu needs an industrious, patriotic and detribalised person like Senator Barau Jibrin who sees Nigeria as one indivisible house to work with in order to move Nigeria forward,” The group concluded.
