A Former Speaker, Plateau State House of Assembly and Former Member who represented Shendam/Mikang/Quan’pan at the Green Chambers Rt. Hon. George Edwards Daika, has said that the South Eastern region has been well-placed to produce the next President of the Senate. He added that given the APC’s marginal majority, the party was in position to produce the next Senate President. Of the six APC senators from the geopolitical zone, Rt Hon Daika said that there are ranking members who understand the legislative business and can pilot the affairs of the National Assembly effectively and efficiently for proactive legislature for good governance.
He made this known during a conversation with journalists in his business office in Jos, the Plateau State Capital on Monday, 13th March, 2023. According to Rt. Hon. Daika, among the front runners for the Senate Presidency, which include current Senate President Ahmed Lawan, returnee Senator Godswill Akpabio, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and Senator Aliyu Wamakko, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu is most suitable to become the President of the 10th Senate putting into consideration some very obvious factors that could bridge and further balance and strengthen the unity amongst us and giving the South Easterners the sense of belonging.
Rt Hon Daika further buttressed what the national coordinator of the Arewa Peace Initiative, Yakubu Muhammed said when called on Senator Bola Tinubu, the President-Elect, all members-elect of the National Assembly, Leadership of all political parties and all relevant stakeholders to consider South-East as a region, who according to him deserved to produce the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.
Beyond the aforementioned, Rt Hon George Edwards Daika also alligned with another school of thought which present arguments that precedence had been set by Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Ya’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari. For instance, he argued that, when Obasanjo was President, the President of the Senate hailed from South East. Obasanjo was from South West. While during the era of President Ya’Adua who hailed from North West, the President of the Senate was from North Central. When President Buhari was sworn into office in 2015, the North Central produced the President of the Senate. President Buhari hails from North West. The current President of the Senate Ahmed Lawan, hails from North East.
In his own words he stated that “Senator Bola Tinubu’s announcement by INEC as President Elect from the South West, the next President of the Senate should ordinarily be allowed to come from the South East. I think all political parties and indeed every sensible and we’ll meaning Nigerian should seriously give the South East a sense of belonging, and that places Senator Urji Uzor Kalu in the best position”.
Senator Orji Kalu is the current Chief Whip of the 9th Senate. He’s a former governor of Abia State and a former member of the House of Representatives in the botched Third Republic. Considered to be the frontrunner for the Senate Presidency, Kalu’s cosmopolitan approach to issues, is considered an asset and has all that it takes to preside over the 20th National Assembly come 12th June, 2023.
The business mogul is also considered as a friend across the Niger, having studied and started his business in Maiduguri, Borno State. His rich contacts in the South and across the two main religions- Christianity and Islam, are considered as huge assets in the unification of the nearly almost divided Nigeria at the moment.
He is also a national figure and is considered a stabiliser, having played a role in settling many rifts among Ministers in President Buhari’s administration and senators over sundry issues and worthy of note the disputes between Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and Gen. Mohammadu Buhari far then.
His most glaring political stride is his role in frustrating the Third Term Agenda of President Obasanjo in 2007, despite the political consequences that eventually followed. As a Christian, Kalu’s election as President of the Senate, is expected to create the needed religious balancing, diffusing the Muslim-Muslim ticket uproar and building the confidence in the Christendom.
From the elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) in 109 senatorial districts across the country, only 27 serving senators won re-election.