S/South deserves position of Senate President-Kassim Afegbua

Former Commissioner for Information, Edo state, Kassim Afegbua says any political engagement in Nigeria would naturally come with its own brick bath in such a way that people who are not favoured, chosen or selected in that process will naturally raise eyebrows.

Speaking on Thursday’s edition of ThisMorning with Yori Folarin, the former Edo state commissioner for information said in the entire context of those who are in the Senate, 109 of them and those in the House of Reps, 360 of them, only 4 persons will emerge in these positions of Senate President, Deputy Senate, Speaker and Deputy Speaker while other principal positions will be shared according to the prevailing circumstances within the two houses.

Mr Afegbua said in his opinion, the South South deserves the position of the Senate President.

“We have presently an outgoing Deputy Senate president and it’s our desire as South Southerners to have that position even though
some persons have argued that it should go to the South East”.

He added that before anyone begins to ask for anything in terms of power distribution, they must also tell say what they put on
the table in the process of cooking the meal.

The South South Mr Afegbua noted is very strategic in the present contest and before now is also the treasure base of the country.

“The South South has never had the opportunity for the Senate President, we have never had the opportunity, so on the basis of that and the votes we gave to Asiwaju that made up the 25% in the entire Six states of the South South, we are positively more favoured than a Southeast person aspiring where Tinubu did not score even 10% in any of the states.”

The former commissioner of information noted that Zoning the seat to the individual is just like a faith acompli because Senator Godswill Akpabio is the only ranking senator in the APC from the South South.

He said that for balancing and equitability, the Speaker job or Deputy Senate President job should have come from the North Central zone instead of Northwest Zone.

He said the bane of the problem was the zoning of the Speakership and Deputy Senate President position going to the Northwest zone and not necessary the one zoned to the South South geopolitical Zone, also taking into consideration the religious consideration, religious factors and others.

The president-elect can only accomplish as much as he can if he is able to work in an environment of stability and environmental tranquility, an environment that promotes constructive engagement and Collective baggage in order to ensure that his renewable agenda and the policy framework that he will be coming up with will be fully supported. Mr. Afegbua noted that we need to be deliberate in making decisions that will help deepen democracy in such a way that it will lead to less acrimony.

“I’m comfortable with the South South choice of Senate presidency and also comfortable with the choice of Senator Godswil Akpabio as a ranking Senator. I’m also fine with ceding the position of Deputy Speaker to Southeast, one of the two positions to Northwest, and one to North Central, as they played a formidable role in entrenching and ensuring that Bola Ahmed Tinubu received the statutory 25% votes required for victory.