Senate Leader Ahmad Lawan has officially declared his intention to contest the office of the Senate President in June when the 9th Assembly will be inaugurated.
Lawan has been in the news as one of the contenders for the seat, but he did not officially declare his position until Friday night in Abuja during a session with journalists.
The Senate Leader, who was APC’s choice candidate for the position in 2015, said, however, that he was ready to respect whatever zoning arrangement that the national leadership of the party would come up with.
He said he has since commenced contacting his colleagues in the APC, PDP and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) to gain their support for his aspiration.
Lawan said he believed the APC had learnt its lessons from the 2015 experience when one of its then senators, Bukola Saraki, defied the party’s wishes and aligned with PDP senators to get elected as Senate President.
Lawan said: “I am a loyal party man. I will respect the decisions of my leaders and the party. We need the cooperation and support of everybody. I also believe that if we want to work with the Executive in such a manner that we can deliver good governance, first we need to achieve unity amongst ourselves.
“We are senators who believe in party supremacy. We believe in the leadership of our party. But the leadership we are seeking is leadership of the Senate and the National Assembly. So, it is very critical and crucial that we talk to our colleagues and convince them that we are the right people to lead the Senate and the National Assembly’’.
