Jarigbe: We Should Choose Most Competent Candidate for Senate President, Regardless of Region

Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe, a member of the Senate in Nigeria’s 9th national assembly, has said that the religion or geographical zone of the Senate president is irrelevant, as long as the best person for the job is chosen.

In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, taking a different stance from his colleagues- Ndoma-Egba, who said that the Senate President should be a Christian from the South-East, and Cletus Obun, who insisted that the Senate presidency should be zoned to the South-South. Jarigbe said “I think that we should choose the best out of the many that will come out… I think that, as senators, we should be allowed to choose who will be the senate president,” saying that the best candidate could come from any zone or religion, despite the call for equity and balance.

The Cross-River north representative, when asked why he was not advocating for the South-South, replied, “I cannot on my own take a unilateral decision on this issue. I might have my own perspective, but I will subtune that for the larger interest,” as he noted that the representatives of the South-South will have a meeting where they chose the candidate they will believe to be the most competent, and therefore, support. “As someone from the SS we will be interested in who would further our interest as a people” he said as he pointed out that beyond the indices of competence, the South-South will support the person who could best further their interest, claiming that that was what politics was about.

Being questioned about the type of leadership he expected to see in the 10th National Assembly, Jarigbe he said that he looked forward to people who, in the leadership position, will improve on what the 9th assembly had done, while asserting that the 9th assembly had some flaws that needed improvement during their tenure. “We want a senate president that will be magnanimous, that will not be bias, will be a senate president for Nigerians and not for his party, so that we can make laws for good governance and for the development of the country, for the general good of this country. That’s what we are looking at.”

Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi

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