Senator Ifeanyi Ubah has called for the South-East region to be granted the Senate Presidency seat.
We reports that the lawmaker representing Anambra South maintained that the South-East deserves to produce the next leader of the upper lawmaking body, despite the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) zoning the position to the South-South.
Senator Ubah believes that this move would help in strengthening the unity of the country. However, lawmakers from the region will need to meet to finalize plans to select a candidate.
While the South-East region gave the ruling APC the lowest number of votes in the 2023 presidential election, Senator Ubah argues that a “balance of the equation” in the distribution of key positions in Nigeria is necessary for the sake of fairness.
“For me and our people from the South-East, we are still very strong in contesting for the office of the Senate President of Nigeria for the 10th Senate. That is our position for now,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“So, in the course of consultation, we would continue to update Nigerians about our position. But for now, I am still in this studio, the position of the South-East caucus [of the Senate] is that we are going to contest for the Senate President of Nigeria.”
Senator Ubah maintained that South-East senators have unanimously agreed that the position should come to the region.
“That is our position for now,” he said, listing Orji Kalu and Osita Izunaso as capable of taking the post.
“I think after the presidential election, I think equity demands that we would sit down and look at every region because we are talking about Nigeria,” the lawmaker added.
“Nigeria is not divided on who brings the vote and who does not bring the vote. Are we not part of Nigeria?”
“We need it in order to balance the equation,” he noted.
The Senator’s comments come just hours after the APC announced the zoning of the key leadership positions in the Senate, sidelining the South-East region, which has been actively campaigning for the Senate Presidency to be zoned to their region.