Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has thrown its weight for the bid for the Senate President by the outgoing Governor of Ebonyi State and Senator-elect Dave Umahi.
The secretary-general of the group, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro in a statement called on the President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to prevail on the Senators to amend their standing rules by invoking a doctrine of necessity to achieve the goal.
“There may be other options but for now, the best option for Tinubu is to pick Umahi as the Senate President,” Isiguzoro said. “This is the position of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and will restore peace in Nigeria, and anything, on the contrary, will make President-Elect Tinubu sleep without his eyes closed.”
Isiguzoro who admitted that there are other qualified ranking senators from the southeast geopolitical zone for the office of the 10th Senate President, argued that Umahi remains most suitable for the exalted seat.
He said that Umahi’s Senate presidency will be strategic in Tinubu’s government to end insecurity and the sit-at-home trend in the southeast.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide is looking at what Igbos will benefit from the office of the senate president if a Southeasterner emerges as no. 3 citizen,” Isiguzoro said.
“The question on our lips are, who will emerge as the Senate President from the east and the insecurity in the southeast will cease, the Biafra violent agitations will cease, the sit-at-home will cease, and the creation of an additional state which Ohanaeze has already projected to the federal government, the creation of Aba State will be actualized?
“These are the things we are looking at and Ndigbo had weighed the personalities and dispositions of those jostling for the position of the Senate President and had settled down for a person whose utterances, conduct, and actions will not be in contraction and conflict with the collective interests of Ndigbo and that of the Executive arm of Government, and Ndigbo want the Senate to use its powers to apply the doctrine of necessity and bend its rules and allow a first-timer to emerge as Senate President from the Southeast.
“If Sen. Godswill Akpabio became a majority leader as a first-timer in 2015 under PDP, why can’t the rules be bent to allow the chairman, southeast governors forum, who is the political leader of the southeast by his position as chairman of southeast governors forum to emerge as the Senate President in the person of Governor Dave Umahi?
“Without Igbo in the presidency, at the legislative arm of good, at the judiciary, without Igbo in the top 5 or top 6, the political leadership of Ndigbo revert to the forum and their chairman becomes the political leader of the Igbo nation.
“So, we are looking at Umahi. If the President-elect will consider the capacity and the interest of the southeast, he should give it to Governor Umahi. Let Umahi go there but because he is not a ranking senator, it becomes a problem. So, at this point, what we are saying is that the president-elect should do the needful and persuade the Senate to amend their standing rules. Let him choose somebody he can work with. No somebody will rock the boat tomorrow.
“The President-Elect should know that Umahi as Senate President of the 10th Assembly will restore peace in the Southeast, and an antidote for the violent agitation, and foster the unity of Nigeria. It’s time for the interest of National peace and Security, Let the Senate amend their standing rules and use the doctrine of necessity to allow Umahi to emerge.”
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