No Backing Down On Senate Presidency – Orji Kalu

• Says I’m in alliance with Sen Yari

BY EDMOND ODOK – Despite mounting pressure from the expected quarters, Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu says there is absolutely no reason to step down his ambition for anybody in the Senate Presidency race.

Insisting that his right to the presidency of the 10th Senate will not be mortgaged on the altar of so-called Party supremacy, the Abia North Senator declared; “I won’t step down for anybody. We are talking with Governor Yari.

“Our group and his group are talking intimately and in partnership. We will make sure that no one zone can produce the Senate presidency. Like I used to tell people, no zone can produce the President of Nigeria.”

Addressing reporters at the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday, Senator Kalu said stepping down for Senator Akpabio is out of the question because talks have reached an advanced stage with former Zamfara State Governor and a frontline contender, Abdul’aziz Yari, for an alliance with their decisions to be made public soon.

He said the combination of Kalu-Yari would not disappoint Nigerians, adding; “We are capable of representing ourselves; Yari-Kalu – Kalu-Yari – we won’t disappoint Nigerians. We will give Nigerians what they require and the Nigerian people won’t be disappointed.”

“We will make sure that no one zone can produce the Senate presidency. What we are trying to do with Senator Yari is a united partnership that will work for Nigeria. In the coming days or weeks, that partnership will be unveiled, so we are in serious talks. I cannot deny it.

“Yari is a friend of mine and I’m his friend and we have decided to talk. We have been speaking for the past four weeks and the result will be unveiled by our sponsors. He has his sponsors and I have my sponsors. So, the sponsors will come together to decide what direction this partnership will be. I’ll be very happy to reveal what the sponsors will say.

“Two of us are thinking of the integrity of the Senate and support President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima who were our colleagues. If you are thinking that what happened during Saraki’s time, it will never happen again.”

For now, pressure continues to mount on all contenders to back down and support the ruling party’s choice of Godswill Akpabio (Akwa-Ibom) and Jibrin Barau (Kano) as preferred candidates for positions of Senate President and deputy respectively that enjoy the endorsement of President Bola Tinubu.

But aggrieved aspirants are not letting off the heat in their criticisms of the zoning arrangement and are demanding a review with arguments that the zoning formula was unconstitutional and skewed against the North.

The 2015 scenario was one in which the former governor of Kwara state, Senator Bukola Saraki, emerged as the Senate President after defying the All Progressives Congress (APC) arrangement that favoured current Senate President Ahmad Lawan at that time.