PUNCH
A northern socio-political organisation, under the aegis of the Northern Elders Forum, has again warned against the imposition of the 10th Senate President, insisting that 109 senators-elect be allowed to choose their leaders.
This was just as the northern elders cautioned that religion, either Islam or Christianity, should not be a deciding factor in who leads the 10th Senate.
The organisation noted that it had repeatedly cautioned the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to respect the rights and privileges of elected members of the National Assembly to choose their leaders and campaign “for its preferences with sensitivity and decorum.”
The northern elders knocked Vice President Kashim Shettima over his comments that “under the current dispensation, the worst incompetent Southern Christian is better than the most puritanical Northern Muslim for the Presidency of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
The NEF Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, while addressing a press conference in Kaduna State on Monday, described the Vice President’s statement as “unfortunate,” saying that such utterances would have been avoided had the senators-elect been allowed to pick the Senate President of their choice.
Baba-Ahmed, a former Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, explained that the attempt to impose the Senate leadership caused the vice president’s gaffe ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly on Tuesday.
The NEF’s spokesman said, “The nation has been made aware of comments made by His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the course of strengthening the cause for election of leaders of the 10th Assembly, which the APC and the government prefer.
“A particularly outstanding comment made by him is that under the current dispensation, the worst, the most incompetent Southern Christian is better than the most puritanical Northern Muslim for the Presidency of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The Northern Elders Forum has cautioned the President Tinubu administration on many occasions to respect the rights and privileges of elected members of the Legislature to choose their leaders and to conduct its campaign for its preferences with sensitivity and decorum.
“The statement of Vice President Shettima in the context of the commitment of the administration to determine the legislature’s leadership makes references to Muslim and Christian faiths in the most unbecoming and irresponsible manner imaginable.
