The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, Thursday said his presidential bid was in his capacity as a Nigerian, qualified to be President and not as a northern aspirant as was being insinuated in some quarters.
According to a statement issued by Ola Awoniyi, the Special Adviser (Media) to the President of the Senate, Lawan stated this in Katsina State, when he went to seek the support of party members particularly the delegates for his presidential bid ahead of the party primaries later this month.
He made the remarks at a meeting with some members of the Katsina State House of Assembly, who came to see him. They were led by the Speaker of the House, Tasiu Musa Maigari.
The President of the Senate was accompanied by the former Governor of Abia State and the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, Senator Bello Mandiya and former Senator Tafida Umar.
Lawan, who is one of the longest serving Nigerian Federal lawmakers having been in the National Assembly since 1999, said he possessed the requisite experience and qualifications that put him at an advantage over other aspirants.
He said: “I am not running as a northern aspirant because the impression created is that I’m a northern aspirant or that northerners are saying they are not going to allow power to the South.
“I’m not running as a northern candidate. I’m running as a Nigerian Presidential aspirant and therefore I come with all my qualifications for that office and people should judge me on the basis of what I have to offer.
“We have been around for some time. Thank God, from 2019, we have been working with the President of our Party, President Muhammadu Buhari, very closely. I know and I understand most of the national issues that we deal with.
I’m a participant in this government and I use that as one advantage that I have. Even though I’m a parliamentarian, I have some experience in governance. Real experience. Therefore, we are going round to tell Nigerians that we are available.
“The fact that we came out last speaks volumes, because I didn’t just wake up one morning and say I want to be President. It took a lot of time for those who believe in me to talk to me to also throw my hat in the ring. And after some time, I accepted.
“And that is to say that some people are not satisfied with those they are seeing and they think that we can do better. I have a great deal of respect for those who are running. The other aspirants.
“And I believe that I have my advantages and I’m going to use my advantages by the Grace of God to not only emerge as the candidate of our party but also win the general elections.
“And I’m not running like someone from the northeast, I’m running as a Nigerian because I believe that I understand the issues of development in Nigeria today.
“And as a participant in this administration, I know that this administration succeeded in some ways and has not succeeded as much in others and therefore, those areas in which we succeeded; it’s for me to continue to build on them.
“Those areas that we have found ourselves in deficit, that we have not been able to succeed as much, it’s for us to work on them. I am a product of this administration and my party and therefore I commit myself to the ideals of my party.
“I commit myself to the ideals of this administration because it takes every effort by everyone to bring development. Mr President will be finishing his term in 2023 as we all know but his ideals are there and his ideals are to develop our country.”
In his response, Governor Masari described Lawan as a very reliable and dependable person.
“When he called me, I told him he should have gone to other places because whatever is possible, whatever we can do for him, we will do it,” Masari said.
In his address the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu told journalists that the North East is the only region who empathize with the pains of the South East for being shut out of the Presidential seat.
“The two zones remain the only zones that are yet to produce a president despite having the most capable hands to govern the country,” Kalu argued
“I believe in regional zoning and I will continue to repeat it as long as the issue of ‘Equity, Fairness and Justice’ is concerned. My reason is not only because it worked in 1999 when all the parties zoned their presidential tickets to the South West, but because it is the only true definition of fairness and equity.
“My clamour for the South East to produce the president after President Muhammadu Buhari was borne out of the enormous clamour and desire for the development and strengthening of our dear nation.
“I have also maintained that anything less than South East must be North East, otherwise it is hypocrisy and wickedness. The South East has given its full support to the South West and the South-South and when it got to the turn of the South East, the language changed to ‘Power is not given but taken’.
“In the absence of this clear non-agreement of the southern brothers to support zoning of the tickets to the South East, I wielded my support to the North East with the hope that justice is closer to the South East,” the former governor explained.
The Senate President was also accompanied by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, Senator Bello Mandiya and former Senator Tafida Umar.
