Why Kano NNPP calls for zoning of senate president to Southeast

The New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) opposing the planned zoning of the office of the Senate President by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to North-west geopolitical region was due to the fear of Barau Jibrin the APC senator aspiring for the seat, an APC’s Support group said.

The APC says the reason given by the NNPP in zoning the senate president has been buried by Nigerians in the just concluded Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

SOLACEBASE recalls that the NNPP Presidential Campaign Spokesperson, Abdulmumin Jibrin, a member-elect of the House of Representatives from Kano state, opined that a northern Muslim from the northwest region should not be allowed to become senate president.

Mr Abdulmumin in an interview with Channels Television, on Wednesday said using the 1999 template, the next senate president should be from the southeast geopolitical zone.

But in a swift response, Muktar Gora, the chairman of ‘Rescue North-west APC’ said the NNPP’s spokesperson has brought to the fore the already-known cold fear which has gripped the leaders and members of the NNPP in Kano about the growing political viability of Barau Jibrin in Kano and the North-west region.

Mr Gora said the NNPP in Kano is jittery because once Senator Barau Jibrin becomes the Senate President, APC will become more stronger in all states of the North-west while other parties like the NNPP will go into oblivion. NNPP will die a natural death in Kano. That is why the likes of Abdulmumini Jibrin are making all these kinds of outrageous statements and by the grace of God, Mr Barau shall be the next president of the Senate.

Mr Barau Jibrin who is the current Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation has declared his ambition to run for the Senate President ahead of the inauguration of the 10th  national assembly in June.

“The NNPP are once again bringing the issue of religion into the election of the Senate President. Nigerian have after the just concluded elections, gone beyond religion and primordial sentiment that the NNPP have given as a reason why the senate president should go to the Southeast.

“For the belief of the NNPP, the only way they can sustain their relevance in Kano is to dubiously deceive Nigerians using religious parameters to zone the senate president to the southeast in scuttling the chances of the must-qualify personality – Barau Jibrin – whose political career is getting brighten day by day.

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“Even if the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives should replicate the 1999 template as suggested by the NNPP, the north-west region will still go home with the Senate President because the zone provided the highest number of votes for the President and Vice-President Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Senator Kashim Shettima, respectively, far ahead of the other political zones aspiring for the senate president’s seat.

“As faithful party men and women from the bottom, we saddled ourselves with the responsibility to intimate our party’s stakeholders across Nigeria of the tactics implored by the NNPP leadership in Kano to make sure Senator Barau Jibrin did not make it to the top and if he does, they have many mountains to climb and their chances further became slimmer and shrinking for the disappearance.

“Barau Jibrin is a party man. He is the only elected APC senator in Kano state. Zoning the senate president to the northwest and electing him as the senate president is the only way to go for the APC to maintain its stronghold and perform optimally in the subsequent elections which the NNPP are all after.

“The same Abdulmumin Jibrin who was appointed as NNPP campaign spokesperson but refused to act because of his disbelief in the chances of his political godfather, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has suddenly appeared to propagate against the good of the very people he claimed to be representing.

“On a final note, Abdulmumin Jibrin should learn from the experience of politicians who have attempted to use religion to achieve their political ends, he will join them in the bad book of history. They are ending up in peril. Worst of it again, Abdulmumin Jibrin will go down on record as a politician who was pushed against the larger interest of the people of Kano state, Mr Gora said.