Nigerian lawmaker Senator Orji Uzor Kalu Thursday said he will run for the office of deputy Senate president regardless of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stance.
“Let me be honest with you even if the party ask me not to run,” Kalu said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
“-I will run on the floor of the House, this is one position I have to run for because you cannot leave the Southeast alone, you can’t leave them behind.”
Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, said his decision to contest the position was to ensure that the Southeast is represented in the Senate leadership.
Since the conclusion of National Assembly elections, different members of the ruling APC have declared their intent to take over leadership positions in the legislature when the 9th National Assembly assumes duty.
Ahmed Lawan, a Senator representing Yobe North and Ali Ndume, who represents Borno South senatorial district at the National Assembly have been at loggerheads over the leadership of the 9th National Assembly.
APC leaders have openly supported Lawan and deemed other candidates errant.
While the Senate presidency remained a contest between the lawmakers from the Northeast region of the country, Kalu said his emergence as deputy Senate president will amount to the APC doing the ‘right thing’.
“We (APC) are in the process of doing the right thing and the East will be given a place in the scheme of things,” Kalu said.
“I am asking that the East should be given the deputy senate president. There is a high level of discussions about that and I’m sure that by partisan it would be a law in the House.”
