Senator-elect representing Zamfara west, Abdul-Aziz Yari, says it would be unfair to the northern part of the country if leaders of the three arms of Government are from the South.
The former Zamfara governor, who spoke in an interview on a television programme yesterday, had declared his bid for senate presidency last month, and has been one of the loudest critics of the zoning arrangement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
The ruling party had nominated Godswill Akpabio and Jibrin Barau as president of the senate and deputy senate president respectively. Yari was one of the senators-elect who presented a “protest letter” to the leadership of the APC over the zoning formula.
Commenting on his opposition to the party’s stance, Yari said the move would mean the leaders of all three arms of the incoming government are from the south.
The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, is from Lagos; Olukayode Ariwoola, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), is from Oyo; and Akpabio is from Akwa Ibom.
Yari said the APC’s zoning arrangement of legislature leadership was not a product of widened consultation and consideration for federal character.
He added that the implication is that all three arms of government will be controlled by the southern part of Nigeria, describing the situation as lopsided.
If Akpabio is elected senate president, it will not be the first time a region would produce the leaders of all arms of government. Between 2019 and June 2022, three northerners — President Muhammadu Buhari (Katsina), Senate President Ahmad Lawan (Yobe) and Muhammad Tanko, former Chief Justice of Nigeria (Bauchi) — led the three arms of Government.
