Senate Presidency: making a case for Godswill Akpabio
The president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu needs to ensure that he secures the senate presidency just as he had won the presidential election. His victory may not be consequential if one is his loyalists doesn’t lead the upper chamber.
The head of the chamber is the third most powerful citizen of the country after the president and his vice. A smart president would see to it that he holds the house.
Mr. Orji Kalu has opened the race when he gave reasons why he is qualified for the Senate Presidency. He used the now popular slogan of Tinubu that it’s his turn to lead the Senate.
Kalu has experience to lead the house, actually, but it will be in the interest of the president-elect Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress to consider and anoint Mr. Godswill Akpabio.
The 2023 presidential election has widely opened eyes that the All Progressives Congress is merely forcing itself than the throat of southeast. The region doesn’t tolerate the political party at all.
Mr. Orji Kalu won the race to the Senate for the third time. But he couldn’t make Bola Tinubu score more than 6,635 votes out of almost 200,000 from Abia State. That indicates that Kalu simply worked for himself without the interests of the APC presidential candidate.
The Senate Presidency would have been a reward for him if the party and Tinubu himself had up to 25% which the electoral act requires. In contrast, Mr. Godswill Akpabio made the presidential candidate of the party score 160,620.
Although Bola Tinubu didn’t win the oil rich state, Akpabio ensured that the APC come second and got the required percentage. The political party has not gained that strength in the history of Akwa Ibom state.
If any of the returning senators from southern region deserves the seat of the Senate Presidency, it shouldn’t be any person other than Godswill Akpabio.
Furthermore, the president-elect can’t forget the brave step that Akpabio took during the primary election of the party. The ex Akwa Ibom state governor withdrew from the race for Bola Tinubu. To set the record straight, Akpabio asked the Akwa Ibom delegates to vote for Tinubu.
It’s risky for the APC and Bola Tinubu to choose the next Senate President from a region which rejects both the party and its candidate. Zoning the Senate Presidency to the southeastern region or picking Orji Kalu wouldn’t make the people of the region accept the All Progressives Congress.
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