Yari says North deserves Senate Presidency after meeting with Buhari

A former Governor of Zamfara State and Senator-elect, Abdul’Aziz Yari, on Sunday evening, met with President, Muhammadu Buhari at his officially residence at the State House, Abuja, after which he declared the north deserved the Senate Presidency.

He has therefore urged the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to “reward performance” and not consider ethnicity or religion when zoning key offices in the 10th National Assembly.

“I’m advising the party that they should reward performance, not religion. Because religion is not in the constitution of Nigeria, and it is not in our manifesto and our constitution,” he said.

Yari, one of the newly elected senators running for the Senate Presidency, argued that the North should be given the chance to produce the next senate leader because it provided the most votes to ensure the All Progressives Congress’s victory in the February 25th Presidential elections.

“Everyone knows the role that we played, despite the fact that other people are thinking we have our own. But we voted on the party line which gave the APC leeway to grab the presidency again.

“So therefore, we’re saying the party should do the right thing. And those that are going around saying ‘Muslim-Christian,’ should be very careful. Our education in politics is more than that now.

“They should not overheat the polity of the party with religion. If APC goes with religion, people in northern Nigeria that did the real voting, they’ll be annoyed and they will lose hope and confidence in the APC. And that’s the truth of the matter,” he said.

Yari stated that the APC must proceed cautiously with its next move because the party no longer has the support it once did.

He declared, “The tenth assembly is entirely distinct from the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth assemblies. Any party with a majority often holds that position with two thirds of the vote. But our situation is very different.

“Why? Because in the House of Representative, I told him (the President) that the minority are having the higher number there, they have 182. While our party has 178. In the Senate where we used to have like 65, 70, we now have 59 and the opposition has 50.

“In taking decision of the party, they have to put these into consideration and look at how it’s going to be done. Because in the end of the whole exercise, whatever happens, we believe strongly that election must hold in both chambers.”

The former Zamfara State Governor who said he did not disclose his aspiration to Buhari said he was at the Villa to felicitate the President for the successful conduct of the 2023 elections which saw his party retaining the top office.

“I came to wish him a good Eid-el-Fitr and also to pray to Almighty Allah to continue to guide him to accept our fasting and also to accept our Eid-El-Fitr and to congratulate him, because since the election, I have not be able to come because of one activity or the other.

“So I came to thank him for the fatherly guidance given to us to where we are. So that’s the main reason why I came here,” Yari said.