Buhari in Support of My Ambition to Become Senate President – Ndume

BY OBUTE JAMES

A one time Minority Leader in the House of Representatives and former Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume has revealed that President Mohammadu Buhari is in support of his ambition to become the next Senate President.

In a statement on Thursday, Ndume said long before the general elections, he had sought the permission of President Muhammadu Buhari to be the next Senate President.

Ndume Statement is coming few days after the Borno elders who declared support for him (Ndume) warned President Buhari against those planning to hajack the system using different colourful ways.

The Spokesperson for the group under the aegis of Concerned Borno Citizens, Alhaji Yakubu Umar, in in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja. alleged that certain dark forces were seriously working on a plot to hijack the leadership of the Ninth National Assembly for their selfish political gains that could be highly counterproductive to the policies of the Buhari Presidency in its second term.

The group maintained that “In terms of lawmaking administrative experience, Ndume was first a Minority Leader in the House of Representatives and later the Majority Leader in the Senate before Lawan.”

Ndume in his statement on Thursday April 18, said Buhari gave him the go-ahead then and he had not taken a different position since then.

He described as “a spin from a well-known quarters,” the claim that his ambition to be the Senate President was at variance with the interest of the President.

He said, “Personally, I am a committed Buharist. Whether I become the Senate President or not, I will continue to stand by him and defend his policies because I see him as a mentor.

“And I believe that Mr President has nothing against my aspiration for the office of the Senate President because I sought his permission long before the general elections and he gave me the go-ahead. I have not heard anything otherwise from him.

“I believe he will not go against my aspiration, because as he said he belonged to everybody and belonged to nobody. And he sticks to that. I am sure that the least he can do is to allow the constitution, which he strongly believes in, and the rule of law to prevail, in the emergence of the Senate leadership.

“So, I want to use this opportunity to clear the air as to those that are trying to cause disaffection.”

Ndume also dismissed the claim that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo pressured him to drop the ambition of becoming the Senate President when he met him recently in Aso Villa.

He said, “It was misinformation. The truth is that it is usual for me to meet with the Vice-President to discuss issues of common interest, especially the humanitarian crisis in the North-East, of which the Vice- President has shown exceptional interest in helping out.

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