Barring any disharmony over power configuration in the 9th Senate among the 64 senators so far officially confirmed elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress ( APC), by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC), aspiration of Senator Ahmed Lawan ( Yobe North), to occupy the position of President of the Senate, may have a smooth sail .
This is as no fewer than 50 out of the 64 APC senators-elect, are at home with his aspiration even when the four presiding positions for the 9th National Assembly are yet to be zoned across the geo- political zones by the National leadership of APC.
The zoning of the four presiding positions – Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Speaker, is expected to be addressed on Monday in Abuja at the National Executive Council ( NEC) meeting of the ruling party.
However ahead of the zoning arrangement, Senator Lawan who currently serves as the majority leader of the 8th Senate, is positioning himself well for the presidency of the 9th Senate by already carrying along many of the 64 APC senators for the required support.
Though only nine, namely Senators Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi ( Niger North), Muhammed Sani Musa ( Niger East), Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia ( Jigawa North East), Abdullahi Gumel ( Jigawa North West), Bello Mandiya ( Katsina South), Ahmed Baba Kaka ( Katsina North), Francis Alimekhena ( Edo North), Opeyemi Bamidele ( Ekiti central) and Teslim Folarin ( Oyo central), were with Lawan in Abuja on Friday when he formally made his aspiration known, but feelers from the other APC senators indicate that many of them are in his support.
One of the Lawan’s supporters who was not at the open declaration in a telephone interview with the Blueprint on Sunday said aside the nine APC senators -elect and their YPP counterpart ( Ifeanyi Uba ) who joined Lawan at the declaration, not leas than 40 others within the party, are for him.
Statistically, the North Eastern Senator who pleaded for anonymity, added that the bulk of the APC senators not yet fully out for Lawan are the three from Borno, the three from Gombe and the three from Nasarawa state on account of possibilities of Senators Ali Ndume ( Borno central), Danjuma Goje ( Gombe central) and Abdullahi Adamu ( Nasarawa west) , joining the race.
“With the exception of those nine senators and about five to six others not yet to make up their minds on who to support on account of the party hierarchy yet to come up with the required zoning arrangement, a total of about 50 out of the 64 APC are solidly with Lawan .
“The 50 APC senators are even different from some of their counterparts in the PDP , having preference for Lawan on account of his legislative experience as a serving parliamentarian of about 20 yeara now .
“To me, the chances of Senator Lawan becoming president of the 9th Senate is very bright going by grounds well of supports he is already enjoying from majority of the APC senators-elect.
“My prayer is that the party leadership should get it right this time around to avoid what happened in 2015 at both chambers because PDP still has considerable numbers that can alter equation at any time if care is not taken”, he said.
