Ndume says the leadership of the national assembly should be based on certain criteria one of which according to him is experience.
Ali Ndume, the lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District has opposed the idea that the leadership of the yet-to-be-inaugurated 10th National Assembly should be zoned to geo-political regions.
Ndume, who has been a member of the national assembly since 2003 wants the senate presidency to be open to politicians from the six geo-political regions in the country.
The 63-year-old politician while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics on Sunday, April 2, 2023, said that he was waiting for his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to make a decision on the leadership of the incoming Senate and House of Representatives.
Ndume argued that the Senate President’s seat is not regionally based, adding that “the senate president is not supposed to be a regional president”.
When asked which region he thinks should produce the next senate president, he said “the leadership of the national assembly should be open”.
He explained further that the leadership of the national assembly should be based on certain criteria one of which according to him is experience.
He said, “I tried to be senate president twice. This is what we need to discuss about the leadership of the national assembly, It’s not about people just throwing in their hats for it. This is a national assembly that is supposed to be an institution to oversight the executives. Therefore, leadership should be based on certain criteria, especially in the emergence of leadership. One of the criteria normally is experience and that is what we call the ranking”.
In the last elections, the ruling party won 55 Senate seats out of 109 and over 160 out of 360 House of Representatives seats.
