10th NASS: Group canvasses support for Sen Barau Jibrin as senate president

As efforts are in top gear for who becomes the next Senate President in the 10th National Assembly, Senator Barau Jibrin has been described as the man who can suitably carry that office on his shoulder.

The assertion was made by the National Headquarters of the Association for Promoting Democracy and Good Governance in a statement it made available to Journalists in Bauchi on Friday signed by the Secretary, Barr. Kelvin Onyebuchi.

According to the Association, “There is no gainsaying the fact that, being the leader of such a very sensitive and slippery place as Nigeria’s Senate requires somebody of Senator Barau’s intellectual standing, of his sense of humility, of his enviable sense of humor, of his much-coveted sense of togetherness, of his unrivalled sense of patriotism and above all his vast wealth of administrative expertise/acumen.”

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It further stated that “Once you have a detribalized Nigerian who has under his belt, all the sterling qualities enumerated above as does Senator Barau Jibrin, you will, without any iota of hesitation agree with me that the 10th Senate will have a very focused and purposeful leadership that will work hard to strengthen our nascent /fragile democracy and nip tribalism and religious bigotry in the bud.”

“For it is high time Nigerians, region or religion notwithstanding, started seeing themselves as their brother’s keepers and this can only be done when you have vibrant political institutions that are capable of doing the right thing to better the lives of the citizenry regardless of their political affiliations,” it stressed.

While giving Senator Barau’s political life, the Association stated that he has been a well-groomed grassroot politician right from his school days, “In fact, it was his love for the downtrodden people that lured him into partisan politics where, in the late 70s, he pitched his political tent with his political role model and mentor’s camp, late Dr. Abubakar Rimi of blessed memory.”

“As a business mogul and philanthropist, Senator Barau used to be a source of relief to thousands of have-nots within and outside Kano State during the military interregnum,” it added.

The Association stated that this endeared him to the good people of Kano State who deemed it appropriate to reciprocate the gesture using the power of their votes when in 2013-2014 they started calling on him to vie for the governorship seat under the aegis of the defunct ANPP.

He would have been elected Kano State Governor, had the merger processes which consumed the certificate of the defunct ANPP not seen the light of the day, for he was considered for the 2015 gubernatorial election in Kano state.