Zamfara West Senator-elect, Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari, has stated that the zoning formula of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly negates the stipulations of the Nigeria’s constitution.
The ruling party had last week listed Senator Godswill Akpabio (South-South) and Senator Barau Jibril (North-West) as preferred candidates for 10th Senate President and deputy respectively.
But speaking on Tuesday while featuring on Arise News’ ‘The Morning Show’, Yari, who is a former Zamfara State governor, said the zoning arrangement is also unfair to the north.
He averred that if the current arrangement stands, all the heads of the three arms of government will be Southerners.
Yari, a contender for Senate presidency, noted that the religion balancing reason behind the APC zoning arrangement was unknown to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as the nation’s law book only provides for federal character in sharing of offices for balancing and not religion as a factor.
He said, “The present Chief Justice of Nigeria is from Oyo State; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President-elect is from Lagos State, and Akpabio is from Akwa Ibom State at the same time. Meanwhile the next Chief Justice of the Federation (Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun) is also going to be from the South-West.
“So, have you ever seen, let’s say since 1960, whether this kind of thing has happened during the Shagari era, coming to Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan? It only happened during Buhari’s time slightly before CJN Onnoghen took over the Judiciary for some time.
“Now it happens that (with APC zoning arrangement) all the three arms of government are in the Southern part of the country. How could that be fair to Northern Nigeria?” Yari queried
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