9 South East senators-elect demand Senate Presidency to go South East
The picture of nine South East senators-elect in a meeting after which they said that the 10th Senate Presidency should go to the South East, is generally a great cause, I must say.
Quite clearly, this is being championed by Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah, with support from other senators-elect from the SE zone.
There are merits and demerits of this alliance, but I would start with its demerits.
First, at this point, it is difficult to change the tide of senate leadership going to South-South, for very obvious reasons. This is to the extent that they may require a miracle.
- Unfortunately, SE does not have the numbers. For instance, 3 × 5 = 15 senators from SE; i.e: 3 senators per state for 5 SE states. So, if it is by regional politics, SE has absolutely no basis to influence the direction of the incoming senate because, they do not have enough numbers to shape the process.
Then again, out of 15 senators from the region, only 9 or maybe 10 appear to be on the same page with Sen. Ubah and the group.
The ultimate question, however, is, is the 10th Senate presidency a close contest?
Secondly, what If SW, SS, NC, and NE play in bloc? In this case, that is 3 × 25 = 75 senators. That is, 3 senators by 25 states across the 4 zones. Give or take, assuming only 60 senators play along, it is still a comfortable win for Akpabio.
Merits of the agenda:
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This group would constitute an important bloc in the senate and would be accorded some relevance, win or not.
- If the contest is a close one between Akpabio and Kalu, then, this group can conveniently influence the emergence of the next Senate President.
- The incoming leadership of the senate would not easily sacrifice the bloc’s interests.
- Give or take, the group would become a relevant power bloc in the senate which moving on, the senate leadership would lobby to advance its agenda.
- Finally, this signals that the SE might be speaking with one voice and might have a regional legislative agenda for the first time.
In the end, it might not really be just about SE winning senate presidency.
-Ebuka Onyekwelu
