By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
A foremost southern Democracy Forum, Citizens Network For Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPDN) has thrown their weight behind the former Governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, to emerge as Senate President, saying senator Akpabio is has the competence, national acceptability and political experience to effectively pilot the Senate to greater heights.
Briefing journàlists yesterday in Abuja, the National Secretary of CNPDN, Francis Okereke Wainwei said Akpabio, being a former Senate Minority Leader while in Peoples Democratic Party, if elected senate President in All Progressives Congress, can become a true unifier.
Wainwei said “He can be the rallying point of all the senators and a formidable bridge between the Executive and the Legislature, having also been a former governor and minister.
“We are therefore, using this medium to also call on all patriotic senators-elect to support and vote massively for Akpabio to emerge as the Senate President of the 10th Senate for the betterment of the country.
“We are therefore, calling on all patriotic Nigerians who truly want to experience the ‘Nigeria of our Dreams ‘to prevail on the All Progressives Congress (APC) to zone the position of the Senate President of the 10th Senate to the South South geopolitical zone and also prevail on their senators-elect to facilitate and ensure the emergence of Akpabio as the Senate President of the 10th Senate and the leader of the 10th National Assembly.”
The group who are also allies of former President Goodluck Jonathan, while declaring support for Akpabio, urged the National Working Committee (NWC) and the various organs of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to zone the Senate Presidency to the South South.
Francis Okereke Wainwei said all South South leaders are primarily committed to the need to allow the South South geo-political zone to also produce the Presidency of the Senate.
He said the South South zone has not been given the opportunity to produce the Presidency of the Senate since the return of democratic rule in 1999.
CNPDN was the first group in 2022 that called on former President Goodluck Jonathan to run for the office of the President again.
Following the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in June, 2022 as the presidential candidate of the APC, the pro-South South group, despite the popularity of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), openly endorsed Tinubu in December, 2022, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.
But making the case for Akpabio, the Bayelsa-born CNPDN National Secretary, Wainwei, said zoning the Senate Presidency of the 10th Senate to the South South zone will foster national unity and engender a true sense of belonging to the people of the geopolitical zone.
He said: “it will also drastically reduce the usual acrimony that characterises such struggle for power among the geo-political zones, thereby, reducing unnecessary distractions for the peaceful and smooth take-off of the new dispensation under the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Currently, Godswill Akpabio, former governor of Akwa Ibom is the only ranking senator from the South South that is a member of the 10th National Assembly.
