There were strong indications on Wednesday that Senator Ahmad Lawan may emerge as the consensus candidate for the position of the Senate president in the 8th Senate.
This is based on the criteria set by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, which is the party with the majority of seats in the Senate, and likely to produce the Senate president.
It could be recalled that the National Working Committee of the APC held a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday night and listed some criteria the would-be Senate president must possess.
These were unanimously agreed on, according to sources at the meeting.
At the meeting, the NWC, among others criteria, agreed that the Senate president must come from the geopolitical zone with the second highest number of votes after the North West at the presidential election held on March 28.
It was further learnt at the meeting that the party’s leadership agreed that the next Senate president must not have any corruption charges hanging on his or her neck and also should be one of the most ranking senators in the Senate.
Based on the criteria, Senator Lawan seems to fit more into the bill than other contenders for the position.
Lawan had been in the National Assembly since 1999, making the most ranking senator in the 8th National Assembly elected on the platform of the APC.
Also, Lawan has not been indicted by any anti-graft agency in the country.
And based on the third criteria, Lawan’s zone, the North East, gave President Muhammadu Buhari the second highest votes during the 2015 presidential election.
A senator who was in the meeting told our correspondent that the meeting also mandated the executive members of the party to, within three days, present a consensus candidate for the post of the Senate president based on the listed criteria.
The representative of Kwara Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Bukola Saraki, who is the other serious contender for the position, has only spent four years in the Senate.
Saraki is also from the North Central geopolitical zone, which also did well during the election but did not give the party as much votes as the North East.
A group, Like Minds Senators, working for the emergence of Saraki as Senate president, two weeks ago, compiled a list containing the names of 34 APC senators-elect, who had endorsed him as the consensus candidate for the post.
However, there was a confusion a week later when another group, the Senate Unity Forum, claimed that 40 APC senators-elect had endorsed Lawan as their consensus candidate.
Already, APC has summoned all its senators-elect for a meeting on Thursday at the International Conference Centre in Abuja on the contentious issue.
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