The senator representing Kano South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Kabiru Gaya, has vowed to takeover Senator Ike Ekeweremadu’s office as deputy president of the ninth Senate.
Gaya, a fourth-term ranking senator and member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made his declaration yesterday in Abuja.
The lawmaker is currenttly the chairman of the Senate committee on works.
He was a governor of Kano State during the General Ibrahim Babangida’s aborted transition programmes in the early 1990s, and served as minority whip in the sixth Senate.
His declarations comes on the heels of speculations that the APC is contemplating zoning the position to the South-east.
Gaya, who debunked the speculations, told journalists that based on information available to him, the APC leadership is considering zoning the Speaker, House of Representatives to the South West, Deputy Speaker to North Central, while it had already zoned the position of the Senate president to the North-east.
He also said the North-west zone ought to produce the deputy senate president since the zone gave the highest votes to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 general elections.
“If the six zones are accommodated in the sharing formula for the National Assembly leadership positions, four of them contributed tremendously to the election of Mr President.
“The South-west, which has now got the position of the Speaker, North-east which has not got the position of Senate president, North-central has the position of deputy speaker.
“Considering the zoning arrangement, it is clear that the North-west has been left behind and I am a ranking senator from the North-west. That means the deputy Senate president position should go to North-west,” he said.
He added that there was nothing wrong with the North producing the president and deputy Senate president, nor will it be out of order for Buhari to come from the same zone as the deputy senate president.
Speaking on the fate of the South-east and South-south zones in the position sharing of the leadership of the ninth Senate, as far as the principal officers of the Senate is concerned, Mr Gaya said the remaining positions in the leadership of the Senate would certainly be conceded to the two zones left out in the presiding officers positions.
The lawmaker has been in the National Assembly for the past 12 years and has occupied key positions in the Senate such as minority whip (2007- 2011), vice chairman, local and foreign debts, chairman states and local government and is currently the chairman, Senate committee on works.
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