By EricJames Ochigbo
The South East Forum for Senate Presidency, a pressure group within the All Progressives Congress (APC), has urged the party to zone the office of the Senate President to the South-East.
The Spokesperson of the group, Mr Nkem Ayanta-Lafia made the call at a news conference in Abuja on Friday.
He said following the outcome of the 2023 general elections, the South-West has produced President-elect in Sen. Bola Tinubu and the North-East produced Vice President-elect, in Sen. Kashim Shettima.
The spokesperson said that since the party’s National Chairman was from the North Central, it was important that the position goes to the South-East.
He said that the balancing of various offices in keeping with national diversity, was a kind of national healing and re-integration that Nigeria needed at this time.
Ayanta-Lafia said that the five states in the South-East zone produced six senators-elect on the platform of APC, representing 40 per cent performance.
He said there was no zone apart from the South-West and North-East where the president-elect and vice-president- elect is from, no zone given the number of states had done better than the South-East.
“We urge the leadership of the ruling APC, which possesses a majority of Senators-Elect in the coming 10th Senate to zone the position of President of the Senate to the South east Zone.
“We are appealing to the ruling party to back the emergence of a South easterner for the position.
“The position will not only assuage the feelings of non-inclusion of the Igbo people in the mainstream of national affairs, but also afford them the opportunity to have a greater stake in the ruling APC.
“We call appeal to other senators-elect from other geopolitical zones interested in the position to, in the interest of national cohesion, unity and equity, jettison them and support the South east zone,” he said.
Earlier, Ayanta-Lafia said that the forum is made up of representatives of various sheds of political and cultural persuasions in the South-East.
He said that the group is campaigning, lobbying, advocating and networking with other integral parts of Nigeria for the realisation of a President of the Senate of an Igbo extraction.
(NAN)
