The Senate Minority Leader, George Akume representing Benue North-West senatorial district, has refuted claims making the rounds that he has withdrawn from the race for the Senate President.
He made this clarification Friday in Abuja while interacting with National Assembly correspondents.
He said the claims that he had abandon his interest for Senate Presidency only existed as figment of imagination of those behind the subterranean moves.
He noted that he could not have done that because of the need to bring his wealth of experience to bear at a time the All Progressives Congress (APC) was taking over power at the centre for the first time in the political annals of Nigeria.
On zoning arrangement, which had made the North-Central to produce the Senate President, in the person of David Mark, he argued that the issue of zoning was critical to the dynamism of the society.
He cited notable antecedents where the North-West has produced larger chunks of House of Representatives speakership.
He stressed that for purposes of divergent nature of Nigerians, zoning system created a platform for them to have a sense of belonging and that was why the people of North Central massively voted for the All Progressives Congress in the recent general election.
Thus, “those calling for relaxation of zoning principle would only want to foist their personal interest to the detriment of diversity of Nigerians”, he noted.
While making reference to other climes, especially advanced countries like the USA and Britain, the lawmaker noted that Nigeria had not gotten to that level of political maturity yet, hence, zoning arrangement would balance power equation.
He expressed hope of becoming the Senate President in the 8th Assembly, which is due to be inaugurated on June 2nd, so as to consolidate on democratic structures.
He, however, opined that his interest would not override the interest of the party should the APC in their wisdom decided to do otherwise.
While reacting to the possibility that power brokers within the party may not support him, the lawmaker was unequivocal that his relationship with those party chieftains would not be severed.
“Though, there are unavoidable ill feelings in politics, but party interest demands that it will not be allowed to the extent of bringing down what you build through hard work over time”, he posited. .
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