Northern Senators Nominate Makarfi For VP

The Northern Senators Forum, yesterday, nominated Sen. Ahmed Makarfi (PDP-Kaduna) for the position of Vice President.

The senators, who rose from a two-hour meeting, said the decision to nominate Makarfi, who is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, was unanimous.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, the Chairman of the forum, Sen. Umaru Dahiru, told newsmen that Makarfi had the experience as a former governor and now a legislator to hold the position.

“There is now a vacuum in administration in the sense that the seat of the vice president is vacant. Constitutionally and normally within the PDP zonal arrangement, when a president comes from a given geo-political zone, the vice president should come from another zone.

“Since the North has lost the presidency which has now been shifted to the South, it is logical for the vice president to come from the northern part of the country.

“Within the context of the northern zone, it is the north-western part of the country that lost the seat now as a result of the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

“It is only logical now that in appointing or nominating anybody to the Vice Presidency, he should certainly come from the north-western part of the country,” he said.

Dahiru said the National Assembly indicated interest in the issue because of the desire for a good working relationship with the executive.

“We want somebody who knows the subject matter in discussion. We want to carry everybody along. The National Assembly should be considered and somebody from the Senate should be nominated for easy screening and confirmation,’’ he said.

He appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan and Nigerians to rally round Makarfi to be the country’s vice president.

Dahiru, who said that 43 out of the 55 northern senators attended the meeting, pledged that the forum would give Jonathan the necessary support to ensure the success of his administration.

Makarfi was a two-term governor of Kaduna State between 1999 and 2007 before his election into the Senate.