9th NASS: Don’t handpick Senate President, group tells APC, others

The Partners for Legislative Agenda for Nigeria (PLAN), a coalition of civil society and youth groups in Nigeria, has called for more search for the Senate president from the North-East geo-political region rather than a hand-picked candidate.

The body made the call at a press conference addressed by its chairman, Lord Charles Ibiang, in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to PLAN, the search for a Senate president must be broadened in order to get for Nigeria the best candidate.

The group stated that the idea of a hand-picked Senate president is undemocratic.

PLAN also said the Senate must rise to the occasion on behalf of Nigerians who elected them in order to choose a person who can build bi-partisanship and nationalistic bridges.

According to Ibiang, such a candidate should be seen to contribute in stabilising and uniting the polity.

PLAN’s chairman said his group was disturbed that in order to impose a candidate, the name of President Muhammadu Buhari was dragged into the agenda of a few under the guise of ‘Presidency’.

He said: “It must be clear that President Buhari has not shown any sign of supporting any project that undermines participatory democracy.  Just recently, the president openly stated that the electorate in states where supplementary elections were to be held are wiser now and should make their choices.

He further stated that contrary to the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committees’ threats, President Buhari encouraged aggrieved aspirants to approach the courts to seek for redress because he disagreed with the party on its undemocratic stand then.

While reeling out the history of Senate presidency, he explained that the North-central should be excluded from the race for the sake of equity.

“In order to sustain political consensus which is historical and politically healthy, PLAN strongly supports the zoning of Senate presidency to the North-east. PLAN was concerned about the need to avoid the unnecessary rancorous politicking that led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and the subsequent psychological and physical combat that followed.

“Our major intention is to create a harmonious executive-legislative relationship that will help the country achieve sound and effective governance,” he said.

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