The endorsement of Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, by the leadership of the APC to become the next senate president is a popular decision taken by all major stakeholders of the party, Sen. Barau Jibrin has said.
Barau, who chairs the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education (TETFund), said on an AIT programme, Kaakaki, monitored in Abuja yesterday, that the endorsement aside, Lawan was the most qualified APC senator to hold the position.
“What the party did in anointing or endorsing Lawan was not the decision of the president alone; it’s not his personal view. It’s the view of the entire APC,” he said.
“The party observed that there was an aberration before in the election of the leadership of the National Assembly. So, the party thought that ‘let’s do the right thing and elect the right person.’ We should do things based on international parliamentary practices,” Sen. Barau said.
“Lawan is the most qualified senator because he would be spending 20 years by May 29,” he said.
Asked if it was true that the presidency wanted to install a pliable person in the event that Buhari’s election was quashed, Barau said: “There’s nothing like having the president planning for eventuality. Nobody thought about that, and we won’t think about it.
“We want the judiciary to do their work. We want them to follow the normal process. We know that we won the election, and there’s no need to be afraid of anything. How can we be afraid of an election we won? No, we can’t be afraid.”
But speaking on the same programme, PDP’s presidential campaign spokesman, Buba Galadima, said although Lawan was qualified to become the senate president by every standard, he and PDP would frown at imposition.
“Some people would tell you that they want to plant leadership of the National Assembly because they have an eye in 2019. All these are on the table. Obviously, the APC is so scared of what will happen in the court.
“A repeat of 2015 is already on the table. I don’t think those in the ruling party are thinking with their heads. We’ve not said anything. We’re just watching, and on the floor of the senate, we’ll decide.”
But in his response, Barau said: “It is internationally accepted that once a nation decides that party A forms the majority, the country has given the party the mandate to lead the parliament. All the opposition needs to do is to give support and not to create problems for the mandate given to that party.”
