The All Progressives Congress member representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Hamma Missau, said on Thursday that his colleagues, and not Senate President, Bukola Saraki, prevented Senator Ahmad Lawan from becoming the Senate Leader.
Missau told journalists in Abuja that the APC caucus in the Senate had no option but to align with the position of their North-East colleagues who insisted on Senator Ali Ndume as their preferred choice for the seat.
He said the South-West caucus of the party for instance, had no issue with the choice of Senator Olusola Adeyeye as the Chief Whip by the party hence they elected him as their leader even when his name was on the party’s list submitted to the Senate President.
Misau, therefore, said that Saraki should not be blamed for the inability of Lawan to emerge as Majority Leader of the Eighth Senate as proposed by the leadership of the APC.
He explained that rather than blame Saraki, aggrieved party members should focus attention on the North-East caucus of the APC in the Senate, who overwhelmingly voted against the party’s choice.
“Out of the 11 Senators who are members of the caucus, eight voted for Ndume while three voted for Lawan and since politics is a game of numbers, the candidate with majority of the senators emerged as leader,” he said.
Misau noted that the explanation became necessary in view of the belief that the senate president deliberately antagonised the party leadership by refusing to name Lawan and the others into leadership positions.
He said, “Many people did not know or understand what happened then. Truly, many of us prefer Ndume to Lawan. The fact that Ndume contested the post of Deputy Senate President and at that time and he sought the support of most senators, made it easy for him to get our support.
“In any case, Senator Lawan never told anybody that he was interested in the post of the majority leader. We therefore voted for a person who actually lobbied and sought for our support. So, we take responsibility for our decisions. Nobody should blame the Senate President.
“The Senate President is just first among equals. He represents one district like every other senator. He is not like a state governor or President who has executive powers and discretion to select ministers and commissioners.
“The Senate President must always do what the senators want and must even carry along his colleagues at all times. Saraki is very popular among us today because he is always respecting our opinion and usually doing what we want.
“He has a way of relating to all of us as equals that we are and trying to aggregate the overall interest and position of majority in taking decisions. So, when we said we wanted Ndume as Senate majority leader, he could not have done otherwise.”
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