NASS REPUBLIC: Ndume on Southern presidency. Two other stories, and a quote to remember

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume, last week, expressed his support for a power shift to Southern Nigeria, noting that the North stands to reap more from it.

We tracked two other stories from the National Assembly (NASS), for your reading delight.

1. Ndume on power shift to South

Ndume, on May 4, argued that the North will be better off, if a President of Southern extraction succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

“Personally, I feel we will be better off with a President coming from the South. The current President comes from the North and if you look at it analytically, the South benefitted more. So, if the President comes from the South, we (the North) will benefit more, just as we did previously under (then President Goodluck) Jonathan,” he said while speaking on Channels Television programme, Politics Today.

Ndume’s assertion is a subtle call for his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to zone the Presidency to the South. It breathes fresh air into the unwritten political culture of rotating presidential power between the Southern and Northern part of the country.

What the Senator must appreciate, though, is that his argument is tenuous, as no such nexus exists between the current perception held of the Buhari Presidency and the fact of him being from northern Nigeria. What, indeed, dominates at the moment is that certain elements in the South feel marginalized by a north-led administration.

Arguably, there is no scientific basis for his permutations as the pattern of performance over the years shows that Nigeria’s ruling elites have been united by a culture of mediocrity that has left the country a laughing stock among its peers.

Ndume’s thesis is, therefore, flawed and only finds usefulness in the argument that the Nigerian project can only make progress if its foundation is built on equity, justice and fairness.

NASS MEMORY LANE

Who said;

“Mr. Speaker, when things like this continue on a daily basis, those of us who are representatives of the government become speechless. We become speechless here to defend actions by the government. This is an elected government, under a popular democracy, but day in, day out, there are killings, massacre, armed robbery all over. Left, right and centre.”

Answer: See end post

Two other stories

Read also :NASS REPUBLIC: When Senate prohibits ransom payment. Two other stories, and a quote to remember

2. Wase’s outcry over kidnapping

On May 4, the Deputy Speaker of the House of the Representatives, Idris Wase, decried the alarming rate of kidnapping in his Wase Federal Constituency of Plateau State.

“Virtually, every day in my constituency today, I have one kidnap report or the other,” Wase said during the debate of a motion on a matter of urgent public importance moved by Hon. Abdullahi Salame during plenary in Abuja.

The Deputy Speaker’s lamentation is sadly a common occurrence, not just in Plateau, but most Northern States in the country. His outcry is a call for the Federal Government to work harder in fighting the spate of kidnapping which bandits have transformed into a booming business; yielding hundreds of millions of Naira.

Beyond laying verbal complaints on the floor of the Green Chambers, Wase should damn the possible consequences and call on the Security Chiefs, who are directly involved in protecting the citizenry, to wake up to their responsibilities in his constituency, including other constituencies across the country.

3. Making life better for workers

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, on May 1, extoled the resilience and commitment of Nigerian workers.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, he said that workers had remained the backbone of the Nigerian economy.

Gbajabiamila’s assurance of making life better for workers is a lofty one. However, it is rather discouraging that most of the promises made to workers are not met by successive governments.

For instance, most State Governors are yet to prioritize the welfare of workers, a culture that has indirectly fuelled corruption in several government offices.

This is amidst the many strikes by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), that have frustrated the flow of work. Here, the incessant industrial actions by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), come to mind.

It is hoped that the Speaker would go beyond rhetorics and use his good office to fight for better working conditions and welfare of Nigerian workers.

Answer. Hon Alhassan Ado Doguwa

Doguwa made the statement when he was lamenting the spate of insecurity across the country, on March 31, 2022, during plenary at the Green Chambers of the NASS. He is the majority leader of the House of Representatives.

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