The national vice-chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Salihu Lukman, has said any Muslim senator vying for the seat of the Senate president has no regard for the Nigerian constitution and the party.
Mr Lukman noted that with Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, elected as president and vice president respectively, it would be injurious to national unity for another Muslim to emerge as Senate President.
The APC chieftain alleged that some of the aspirants for the positions are neither concerned about the security and well-being of Nigeria, nor the implications of their ambitions for the electoral viability of the APC.
The APC chieftain who stated this in a statement titled, “Cash-and-Carry Contest for Leadership of 10th National Assembly”, urged all party leaders to prevail on the two aspirants who have so far declared their interest to step down.
He said: “Any Muslim aspiring for the position of Senate President has no respect for both the constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the APC.
“This is because Chapter II, Section 14(3) of the Nigerian constitution clearly outlined that ‘the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.
“With two Muslims already elected to be sworn in as President and Vice President of the Federal Republic on May 29, any attempt to consider another Muslim as Senate President will promote the dominance of Muslims in the Federal Government and will be injurious to national unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as a sovereign entity, which must not be allowed.”
He also alleged that some of the aspirants have been engaging in unethical behavior, which, according to him, has reduced the contest to a “cash and carry”.
“Certainly, these aspirants know that there is very high probability that once the party is allowed to finalise the processes of zoning positions of leadership, the probability is high that these positions would be zoned to other sections of the country outside theirs.
“In order therefore to force their way and weaken the party, they are proceeding with mobilising support for their aspirations in a very unethical manner.
“Some of them, including another aspirant for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives from the North-West have sent bags of rice and sugar to members of the APC National Working Committee, NWC.
“There are speculations that some of them are bribing party leaders with huge amounts of money to stop the party from zoning positions.
“There are also the disturbing reports from House of Representatives members-elect that one aspirant for the position of Speaker from North-East apart from bribing members-elect with huge amounts of money, is also offering jeeps to members-elect if they will commit to electing him as the Speaker.
“This has reduced the contest for the leadership of 10th National Assembly to cash-and-carry.
“How can APC elected representatives descend so low as to be using unethical methods of cash-and-carry to mobilise support for their aspirations?,” Mr Lukman queried.
He added that the two Senators-elect who are being alleged to be involved in such unethical methods are both Muslims from the North West.
