ALL Progressives Congress (APC) leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu appears to have convinced former Benue State governor Senator George Akume to shelve his plans to become senate president in favour of Senator Ahmed Lawan from Yobe State. 

With the APC now the dominant party in the senate, the race is on to find a new senate president and it had been thought that the position had been zoned to the north central geo-political zone. However, the northeast geo-political zone has been arguing passionately that it should produce the next senate president and it appears that Asiwaju Tinubu has given in to their pressure. 

Yesterday, Asiwaju Tinubu met with Senator Akume at his home in Lagos, where he pleaded with him to shelve his ambition and support Senator Ahmed Lawan, who represents Yobe North Senatorial District. Since the conclusion of the March 28 National Assembly elections, Senator Akume, the senate minority leader representing Benue North and Kwara Central's Senator Bukola Saraki have been involved in a two-horse race for the senate presidency. 

However, it was appears that the APC leadership has finally decided to zone the position to the northeast following fresh developments. Senator Lawan is said to be supported by current senate president Senator David Mark, and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

One source at the meeting said: “Tinubu explained to Akume that Lawan and Senator Mark are very close and already, some members of the PDP support him. Lawan has a good track record in the senate and has been backed by almost all the senators in the northeast who feel the zone has been seriously marginalised.

“The catch there is that if the APC members in the senate do not support Lawan and he wins the senate presidency with bloc votes from the PDP and his friends in the northeast, he will be loyal to the PDP and may sideline us just as the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, attributed his victory to the APC back in 2011 even though he was a member of the PDP. Mark will definitely do everything possible to ensure that Akume does not emerge senate president if we pick Akume because they are not on good terms. 

Senators Akume and Mark have long been political rivals as they are both from Benue State have been involved in fighting for dominance there. It is believed that Asiwaju Tinubu subsequently told Senator Akume that he sacrificed his presidential ambition for the sake of the party. 

According to the source: "Tinubu therefore urged Akume to settle for the deputy senate presidency or senate majority leader. Akume was also asked to step down because the north central zone, where he hails from, has been holding the senate presidency since 2007 while the northeast had never presided over the upper chamber of the National Assembly since independence. 

 “The current senate president is from Benue State and has been in charge for eight years, so would it be fair to also hand over the senate presidency to another person from Benue? The president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, got more than 2.5m votes from the northeast and this should be rewarded.” 

He added that giving the northeast the position would also be a way of rewarding them for giving the APC the second highest number of votes during the presidential election. Senator Lawan, who just won a third term, is said to already have been accepted by those close to the president-elect because he was among those who led General Buhari’s presidential campaign in the then All Nigeria Peoples Party in 2007 in Yobe State.