Even as race against time on reaching a wide and acceptable consensus on who becomes the ninth chairman of the National Assembly and by extension, the Senate President, enters the crucial stage, more pressure groups have continued to stand on the side of the resilient Borno State-born senator, Ali Ndume.
In a recent interview, President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (ATCF), Shetima Yerima, has brushed aside, allegations of being compromised in his group’s support for Ndume, saying, “By all standards, Senator Ali Ndume is the most qualified, if you look at his resume. I mean by all standards”.
“If you talk about strong character, commitment, experience and also, being independent minded and going by his antecedents, we have seen him demonstrating that over time. Senator Ndume is the best for the country to lead the National Assembly. This is not about me. He is the best for the country.
“The executive arm wants a situation whereby it will just go by, without anybody checkmating their excesses, automatically. It is not about having one stooge arranged by some interests, that somebody somewhere, against the collective interests of over 200 millions Nigerians. Those who are thinking otherwise are the ones that are compromising. Nigeria comes first.
“I do not have anything personally against Senator Ahmed Lawan. But, the right thing must be done. For somebody to make a pronouncement in a national daily and an international medium that ‘Even if he emerges as the Senate President, if a bill can come forward for the amendment of the Constitution for Buhari to continue for a third term’, that he will pass it, is worrisome.
Yerima noted that “I am very worried about that. You can now see that somebody is just becoming a rubber stamp. That means there will be no independence for the Senate. For him to look and believe that after the God we worship, there is no other God than somebody else who will make him what he wants to be, from other parts of the country in the South West. “Automatically, you can see that he has short-changed the North. Whose interest is he protecting? He just wants us to fold our hands allow him to do that. No, we will not. If that is what you call compromise, yes, we agree to compromise for the interest of Nigeria. If that is what is called compromise, it is indeed.
