Imo West lawmaker insists he remains in the race to become the next senate president

IMO West Senatorial District lawmaker Senator Osita Izunaso has refused to accept the All Progressives Congress (APC) hierarchy's allocation of National Assembly leadership positions saying he is very much still in the race to become senate president.

With Asiwaju Bola Tinubu from the southwest elected as president and Senator Kashim Shettima from the northeast elected as vice president, the race for the senate president is open to candidates from all of the other four geo-political zones. Ranking senators from the northwest, south-south, southeast and north central geo-political zones are already positioning themselves for the coveted position, three months before elections are due.

Last week, president-elect, Tinubu met with the national working committee of the APC to decide on how to resolve the matter. Apparently, at the meeting which took place at Defence House in Abuja, Asiwaju Tinubu told party leaders of his preference for Senator Akpabio as the 10th senate president with Senator Jibrin Barau serving as his deputy.

Senator Akpabio represents Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, while Senator Barau represents the Kano North Senatorial District. Also, the meeting is said to have reached a compromise on the next speaker of the House of Representatives, with Hon Abbas Tajudeen giving the nod to preside over the 10th House.

However, Senator Izunaso, the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas and Housing, who is returning to the National Assembly after a four year stint between 2007 and 2011, said he will still seek to become senate president.  While stating that he is in the race to give the National Assembly a clean and fresh breadth, Senator Izunaso expressed the optimism that he would eventually triumph and make the entire nation proud of an assembly administered by competence, experience, capacity and integrity, comparable, if not better than any in the advanced world.

Senator Izunaso said he is the highest ranking senator from the south-south and southeast with robust and outstanding legislative and National Assembly experience spanning from 1992 when he served as the chief press secretary to the speaker of House of Representatives, to 1999 when he was appointed as the chief press secretary to the senate president. He therefore called on the leaders of the APC to douse the tension generated by the controversial zoning formula already heating the political atmosphere by coming up with an alternative arrangement that would guarantee unity and national cohesion.

He added: “It would also interest you to know that during the five years of my tenure as the national organising secretary of APC, there was no single litigation over our congresses both for party primaries and party executives. I was fair, just, adroit and meticulous in all my activities.

“Looking for a complete and loyal party man, I am the best. If competence, as in what our father, the president-elect desires in his planned government of national competence, I am not just the most competent, I am the most capable, creative and organised senator among the contestants.

“If you want to go with the mood of the nation, requiring a government of national unity, I am an Igbo man from southeast, the most marginalised zone in Nigeria, I am the most qualified. Equally, if you want to go with the Not-Too-Young Act, one of the greatest achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, I am the youngest of all the aspirants.

"I am indeed the best and the next person for senate president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Emi Lokan.  I am the person that can give the Senate a clean and fresh image needed to give us a new Nigeria promised Nigerians by the greatest democrat of our time, the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu."