10th NASS: APC Chieftain Appeals To Northern Senators-Elect To Support Akpabio For Senate President

Yekini Nabena, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary for the ruling All Progressives Congress, supported Senator Godswill Akpabio on Monday in his bid to become Senate President ahead of Tuesday’s vote to elect the 10th National Assembly’s presiding officers.

Nabena pleaded with senators-elect from the North, including former Governor Abdulaziz Yari, to strive toward unifying the nation while claiming that the selection of Akpabio will balance the Muslim-Muslim ticket that brought in President Bola Tinubu and his deputy, Senator Kashim Shettima.

The former APC image-maker was responding to Tinubu and Shettima’s intervention on Sunday, which resulted in the withdrawal of two leading candidates for Speaker.

At the political parley, Aliyu Betara from the North-East and Yusuf Gagdi from North-Central agreed to step down from the race and endorse the preferred candidate of the party from the North-West, Tajuddeen Abbas, for the position.

In a statement released in Abuja on Monday, Nabena noted that there was no way the North should be allowed to have the positions of Vice President, Speaker, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and Senate President at the same time.

He said: “For the sake of equity, justice and fairness, I will appeal to all the senators-elect to rally around Akpabio to emerge as the next president. This has become necessary because the two major contenders in the race for the position of Speaker have withdrawn and declared their support for Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, which means that the road is almost clear for the emergence of another Muslim from the North as the number four citizen.

“Therefore, there is need for religious balancing in government and for the fact that only South-south will be left out of equation if the position of Senate President eludes the region, hence the more reason Senators-elect should rally support for Senator Godswill Akpabio as the next Senate President.

“As it stands today, the South-west has produced the President, the North-east has the Vice President, the North-west is about to produce the Speaker, (Note that the three of them are Muslims), the North-central has the SGF and the South-East to produce the Deputy Speaker. So, where is the South-south?

“We are also begging Senators-elect from the north to forgive Senator Akpabio if he has done anything wrong in the past for the sake of national unity and religious harmony by allowing him to emerge the next Senate President.”