Senate Presidency: The North East Option
Owogbemi Modupe The issue this time is not insurgency-a menace that the North-east is often characterised with. Now that the region is witnessing some liberation, through the gallantry of a re-invigorated Nigerian army, what more would the citizenry desire other than a fast paced programme of reconstruction and rehabilitation. A complementary quest seems to be the senate presidency.
The late sage, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was the first to take a shot at the headship of the Nigerian Senate in post independent Nigeria. He took charge in 1960. Of Eastern extraction, erudite Azikiwe made his mark, albeit briefly, before handing the baton to another eminent citizen, from the same Eastern extraction, Dr. Nwafor Orizu, who held sway from 1960 to 1966
And then came another senate at the resumption of democratic rule in 1979, and then came Dr. Joseph Wayas from Nigeria’s Cross River State. Contemporarily classified as a South-south state, it belonged in the Eastern region of old. A military intervention on the last day of 1983 saw him and his co-travellers off, and then another long wait, before the nation had another breather, and Iyorchia Ayu stepped in, in 1992. From Benue State, he was of the North-central extraction. One rigmarole after the other, one ban here, and another here, a cancellation yonder, and an annulment away, brought back the military, again sending the politicians to their cocoons, although not after Ameh Ebute, also from Benue, had had his stint for a few months in 1993.
Chief Evans Enwerem from Imo was ushered in to lead the fourth senate. But turbulence soon crept in. And then he got the boot, even in same 1999. Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, a brilliant academic was the next beneficiary. No thanks to the ceaseless interventions in senate affairs by an overbearing executive, Okadigbo fell in 2000 and boisterous Chief Pius Anyim, another Easterner, was ushered in.
Adolphus Wabara stepped in, reigning from 2003 to 2005, and also failing to end the course of his own senate like some of his immediate predecessors, except Anyim. Noble looking Ken Nnamani was to replicate the feat of Anyim, as he was lucky enough to complete his senate circle in 2007.
From the above, all senate presidents the nation has produced have come from the East, whether South-east or South-south, except Ayu and Ebute. It returned to the North-central, the region of Ayu and Ebute, through David Bonaventure Mark in 2007. David Mark has been in charge for eight unbroken years. In nearly 30 years of senate leadership in Nigeria, it has been occupied by either a North-central man, or a Southeasterner.
The North-central, as earlier said, have had a good share of the top legislative position. The South-east and the South-south seem to have ruled themselves out of contention on account of near total preclusion of APC amongst the elected National Assembly members from the two zones. The North-west holds the top position. The South-west is next in line. It all combines to put the North-east in a good stead for the job. If the need to rehabilitate that zone is played up, alongside the fact that they have never held that position, plus the fact that they have jointly produced 13 senators, in addition to the evidence that they gave their victorious party the second largest regional votes, then there might not be anywhere else to look in the quest for the next occupant of the senate presidency position. Let the All Progressive Congress (APC) get it right!