Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima on Monday threw his weight behind the candidature of Senator Ahmed Lawan as the President of the ninth Senate.

Shettima, who spoke to reporters in Abuja, said his decision to back the candidature of Lawan is line with the position of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari.

The APC has already endorsed Lawan (Yobe North) as the party’s choice for the Senate President.

Shettima insisted the decision of the APC about who becomes the President of the ninth Senate must be respected as way to enforce party discipline and cohesion.

The governors, who said that it was not true that Borno elders were backing Senator Ali Ndume to emerge Senate President, noted that as the first citizen of the state he made wide consultation before his decision to support Lawan.

He said: “I hail from the same state with the distinguished Senator Ali Ndume. And I appreciate the fact that politics is local. But politics is also national. And I believe the blood that binds us together supersedes whatever we might harbour.

“But I fully aligned with the aspiration of my party, to the aspiration of President Muhammadu Buhari and by the grace of God we are going to mobilise all our goodwill to see that we are fully on board.

“We are for Senator Ahmad Lawan, we are for Femi Gbajabiamila and all other senators and other House of Representatives members endorsed by the party.

“We are for party discipline that allowed everyone to aspire for political offices. We believe that we must respect the party. All of us won under platforms. There is no provision for independent candidate.

“I don’t know whether anyone has won under an independent platform. Except may be Senator-elect Ifeanyi Ubah who brought in an anonymous party and won.

“So, I feel honored by the visit but honestly this visit is unwarranted. I am fully onboard. I am for Senator Ahmed Lawan for Senate president.

“Well, I am the first citizen of the state I have made wide consultations with our leaders from Borno before resolving to back Senator Ahmed Lawan.

“And most importantly, let’s be brutally honest, Muhammadu Buhari is the single candidate in the country that most of us from the North won election by aligning with Muhammadu Buhari.

“So, we have no basis to undermine him or to disrespect him. People like Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Sen Ifeanyi Ubah, Sen Francis Alimikhena won in spite of Buhari not because of Buhari.

“But most of us from the North have no basis not to align ourselves with President Buhari and whoever he enforces.

“He has endorsed some of the best hands we have in the system and where we hail from, Sen Ahmed Lawan is one of the best hands we have.

“It is a reality. He has been in the National Assembly since 1999, he has the experience, exposure, pedigree, intellect to redefine the process. He is the best amongst equals.

“He is level headed, calm, matured and we need such quality of leadership to drive the 9th Senate.

“We, the people of Borno, the elected representatives of the people of Borno and we are the representatives of the people.

“We are not at war with Senator Ali Ndume, he is my kinsman but we will continue to prevail on him to align himself with the aspiration of the party. We are not at war. We belong to the same paternity.”

https://thenationonlineng.net/senate-presidency-borno-behind-lawan-not-ndume-says-shettima/

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Lawan has already clinched the senate president seat because APC can not be foolish to let this slip away from them again