Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th Senate next week, President Bola Tinubu has told the Senators-elect that former governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio is the choice of the ruling All Progressive Congress as Senate President.
The President therefore appealed to senators-elect to abide by the zoning arrangements as announced by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party last month.
The APC has zoned the president of the Senate to South-South with Senator Godswill Akpabio as preferred candidate and Senator Jubrin Barau from North West as preferred candidate for deputy Senate President.
Addressing over 43 APC senators-elect led by Senator Akpabio at the Aso Rock Villa late last night, President Tinubu made a passionate appeal to every APC senator-elect to toe the lines of the party’s zoning arrangement in electing their presiding officers, stressing that this is the right thing to do in support of the Renewed Hope agenda of his administration.
“At this point of our history and challenges facing us as a new administration, all hands must be on deck to salvage the unpalatable situation facing the nation. We must see the situation as a pan-Nigerian Project for the executive and the legislature to work out solutions to the challenges of the nation,” he told the senators-elect.
Tinubu said the task ahead to finding solutions to the myriads of national problems cannot come from the executive arm of government alone but from jointly working together of the executive and the legislature.
He added that the senators-elect present at the meeting should reach out and pass the appeal to other APC senators-elect unavoidably absent to toe the party line and put a leash on all personal ambition in favour of party programme and national interest.
“Talk to your colleagues that are not here to toe the party line and give the Renewed Hope agenda a chance to succeed. The elephant is big enough for all members and indeed Nigerians to have a share of the renewed hope in due course,” he admonished.
Earlier on at the meeting which ended around 11pm, Senator Akpabio once again congratulated the President on the successful presidential inauguration and stated that since the party announced the zoning arrangements for the leadership of the National Assembly, the majority of the party’s senators-elect led by him and Senator Barau has reached out in consultation to other senators-elect and others from opposition political parties with positive result and pledge of support.
