Former Governor of Zamfara State and the senator-elect representing Zamfara West, Abdulaziz Yari has asserted that it would be unfair to the Northern part of the country for leaders of the three arms of government to hail from the Southern part of the country.
Yari made this assertion while speaking in an interview on Arise TV on Tuesday which was monitored by Africa Today New, New York.
Recall that the All Progressives Congress, APC, had nominated former Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, and Jibrin Barau as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively, though the former Zamfara governor had since indicated interest to occupy the seat of the senate president.
Yari was also one of the senators-elect, who presented a ‘protest letter’ to the leadership of the APC over the zoning formula.
On his opposition to the party’s stance, Yari said the move would mean the leaders of all three arms of the incoming government would be from the south.
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They include Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, from Lagos; Olukayode Ariwoola, Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, from Oyo; and Godswill Akpabio from Akwa Ibom.
Yari said the APC’s zoning arrangement of legislature leadership was not a product of widened consultation and consideration for the federal character.
‘Right from the beginning, the party has a tradition of widening the consultation: meeting with the president and all the members of the national of assembly; because it is not the party’s business but that of the country.
‘But the party did not do any of the above, and what we saw in the media was that they had two meetings, and we were given names to adopt.
‘That is not adequate enough. Because all of them are just advisory bodies, the constitution gives the right to choose national assembly leaders to only the parliamentarians. The party can zone, but it is left for the individual to accept or reject.
‘APC has zoned and now we are asking them questions: On what basis? Have you taken into cognizance the federal character?
‘The president, chief justice of the federation and national assembly chairman –all the three arms of government — are in one place?’
‘The chief justice is from Oyo state, Tinubu is from Lagos State, and Akpabio is from Akwa Ibom, all at the same time. And the next chief justice is also going to be from the south-west,’ he said.
Yari explained that the implication was that all three arms of government would be controlled by the southern part of Nigeria, describing the situation as lopsided.
Africa Today News, New York reports that 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, including President Muhammadu Buhari (Katsina), Senate President Ahmad Lawan (Yobe) and Muhammad Tanko, former chief justice of Nigeria (Bauchi), led the three arms of government.