Senator Ali Ndume, the senator representing Borno South, has revealed President Bola Tinubu’s preferred candidate for the position of Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.
According to him, Godswill Akpabio, the All Progressives Congress (APC) consensus candidate for the seat, is the President’s preferred candidate for Senate President.
Ndume stated that the President informed him of his preference for Akpabio and personally directed him to lead the campaign for his election as Senate President for the tenth National Assembly of Senators.
The lawmaker, while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, said;
The President told me that his preferred candidate is Akpabio and I should lead the campaign.
He stated that Tinubu has expressed confidence in Akpabio’s abilities and that he will not change his mind about him being his preferred candidate for the seat.
According to Ndume, 75 of the 109 elected Senators in the red chamber have expressed support for Akpabio’s ambition.
The lawmaker, however, admitted that he faces stiff competition from the campaign of former Zamfara State governor Abdulaziz Yari, who is also running for the position.
He noted that;
As at today I am telling you we have 75 senators. All advantages are on our side. We have the support of the party, we have the support of the president, and most importantly we have the support of most of the senators. These senators signed up to endorse our programme.
Let’s say that some people will jump over at the last minute, that can happen, but I am very confident. I don’t want to be overconfident because people can change their mind, but we have a better candidate.
We have two candidates that are in front now, that is Yari and Akpabio and our candidate has all the advantages over the other candidate, politically and intellectually, we have an added advantage.
In May, the APC announced the zoning arrangement for the four major NASS leadership positions, including Senate President – South-South, Senator Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), and Deputy Senate President – North West, Senator Barau Jibrin (Kano).
The Speaker of the House of Representatives (North-West) is Abass Tajudeen (Kaduna), and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (South East) is Hon. Ben Kalu (Abia).