Senate Presidency: A Case For The North-West In 10th NASS
By Oreoluwa Akande
The All Progressive Congress, APC, has a very tough decision to make. When eventually the top hierarchy in the party as well as the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, feel that the time is ripe to make a decision, several factors would be laid bare before finally deciding which zone in the country should produce the head of the Legislative arm of government. With Bola Tinubu becoming the president-elect, he has picked the number one job in the land. He is from the South West and that geo-political zone in Nigeria is well taken care of.
Where would the pendulum swing when it is time to decide which zone should the number three job go? If performance during the February 25 presidential election is to be the main determining factor, the North West rightly deserves the ticket. In the words of Karl Marx, a German philosopher, historian, and economist, politics is merely “organised power of one class to oppress another class.” The statement cannot be far from the truth, particularly when it is examined within the Nigerian political context, where all sense of decency is thrown to the gutters creating room for the deployment of all manner of gimmicks and political intrigues by the political class just to make up the numbers. In other words, what you will get should be based on what you bring to the table.
Again, politics has been described on several occasions as a game of numbers. It is a game in which the majority would have their way while the minority, would definitely have a say. In the rat race for the number three job, North West is favoured over and above other zones in the country. The number of votes garnered for the president-elect few weeks back is quite germane. Check out the figures: South East – 127,605 votes; South-South – 799,957 votes; North-West – 2,652.235 votes, and North Central – 1.760.793 votes. The North West gave the highest number of votes to the president-elect. It could even be alluded that without the votes of the zone, Tinubu would not have become president-elect today.
Before the February 25 presidential election, there were permutations that Tinubu’s failure to pick a Hausa – Fulani as his running mate would hurt his campaign:Shettima is Kanuri from the north-east .But the resilience of many APC politicians including Senator Jubrin Barau ensured that the party was not disgraced in the North. And if there is one region that stood by Tinubu in the February 25 presidential contest, it was the North West providing the lead for both the North East and North Central.
It is therefore incumbent on the APC to reward the zone that gave it its strongest support in the presidential election. This has been the tradition, where the region that delivers block votes to the ruling party is most favoured for such a position. During the Olusegun Obasanjo era, it was easy to zone the Senate Presidency to the South East because the region voted overwhelmingly for the PDP government. And in the Umaru Yar’Adua-Goodluck Jonathan administrations, the North Central was favoured due to the same reason.
In the present circumstance, since the North West has contributed immensely to Tinubu’s emergence, it is expected that the zone would be rewarded with the position. Deservedly so.
In picking the Senate President, the final decision, however, rests with the 109 senators elected across the country. They will have to take a final decision on the floor of the red chamber on who should be the head of the 10th National Assembly. In doing so, the senators will be guided by the Senate Standing Orders. Indeed, by virtue of Order 3, Rule 2 of the Senate Standing Orders 2022 as amended on the nomination of presiding officers and appointments of Principal Officers and other Officers of the Senate, it shall be in accordance with the ranking of Senators. In determining ranking, the following Order shall apply: (i) Senators returning based on number of times re-elected; (ii) Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives, (iii) Senators elected as Senators for the first time.
Coincidentally, Senator Barau Jibrin is the highest ranking APC Senator in the the North West region. He is also the highest ranking amongst the entire list of senators that have indicated their interests to vie For the Presidency of the 10th senate .The odds, therefore favour Kano state and indeed Senator Barau Jibrin due to the strategic importance of kano as one of the super-states in the Nigerian power equation. The need for the APC government to consider Kano has become more imperative due to the threat of annihilation by the Rabiu Kwankwaso-led NNPP which inflicted considerable damage on the APC in the last elections.
Barau is a fourth-term Member of the National Assembly and a third term senator who has shown capacity by winning the Kano North senatorial seat three consecutive times. With that feat, it has become clear that he has the capacity not just to check the excesses of the NNPP and return Kano fully to the APC, he can also provide the needed leadership for the success of the APC-led government. Barau, who is the current Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, is a thoroughbred lawmaker who has served a better part of his political life in the parliament. He was in the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003, where he served as the chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, and came back to the National Assembly in 2015, this time as a senator. He not only retained the seat in 2019, but in the February elections, confirmed the fact that he is a formidable political leader by defeating the NNPP which claimed the other two senatorial seats in Kano State. Barau is one politician who has had credible experience both as a legislator and an administrator and has never been associated with any scandal or controversy.
For a legislator who has served as chairman of the Appropriation Committee in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Barau has been effective in the discharge of his duties and ensuring proper scrutiny of the budget. He also served as the chairman of the Kano State Investment and Properties Limited, Commissioner for Science and Technology, and member of a committee to review Nigeria’s budgetary process. Soft-spoken and easy-going, Barau enjoys the support and cooperation of his colleagues as he is accessible and humble while being effective in every leadership role he has held.
Senator Barau was born in 1959, and he is a native of Kabo Township, Kabo Local Government Area, Kano State.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting; a Master’s certificate in Financial Management and Pricing; a Master’s certificate in Management, and Master’s of Business Administration (MBA). He also holds a certificate in Financial Management for business decisions from the prestigious Cornell University, United States.
After his initial higher studies, the Senator worked briefly in the accounting department of the Kano State Foundation before he resigned in 1992 to begin his private flourishing business with vast interests in the manufacturing, insurance, and construction sectors of the Nigerian economy. His success in the private sector prepared him adequately to begin a process of championing the cause of his people through the instrumentality of politics.
As expected, the South East zone and the South-South zone are also laying claim to the number three job. Already, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu from Abia; Osita Izunaso from Imo West senatorial zone in Imo State as well as Senator Godswill Akpabio from Akwa Ibom State representing South -south zone are also in contention for the Senate President seat.
It is also possible for the ruling party to throw the contest wide open and allow all the aspirants to canvass votes directly from their colleagues.
Whichever formula the APC may choose in picking the next Senate President, one thing is very clear- we are likely to get a vibrant 10th National Assembly as many of those vying for the post are competent hands who are capable of holding their own in any debate. It is however very clear that Senator Barau is shoulder above many of the aspirants.
