Lagos/Abuja — Northern Senators have hatched a plot to deliver a block vote for their own man in the contest for Senate President on June 7.

Gombe State Governor, Danjuma Goje, who will transit to the Senate after May 29, is still keen on the post, and is mobilising quietly among new Senators.

But his bid runs against the zoning arrangement in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the new Senate rule which bars greenhorns from leadership positions.

If he goes for it, he will slog it out with Senate President David Mark.

Mark is from the North Central, Goje is from the North East.

The PDP zoned the Senate Presidency to the North Central for another four years, and that and the new Senate rule both favour Mark.

The entire North has 57 members in the Chamber, the South 51.

Although many PDP bigwigs are reportedly behind the retention of Mark, a source said Goje "is still meeting with the zonal caucuses and impressing on them the need to give other states in the North a shot at the Senate Presidency.

"Although the Senate changed it's rules last week, Goje and his team are undeterred."

The Northern Senators Forum (NSF), largely dormant since 2007, is also being galvanised. Chairman of the Judiciary and Human Rights Committee, Umaru Dahiru, from Sokoto State, heads the NSF.

Smart Adeyemi, also a returnee Senator like Dahiru, is his Deputy.

After a meeting of the NSF at the weekend, Adeyemi told reporters: "By Tuesday (May 24) the Northern Senators will address the nation on this issue and we are not in doubt that we are going to vote one way.

"Why we are not talking now on the issue of the Senate President is that in the course of this meeting we felt that there is need for us to discuss some issues with those who are nursing the ambition of contesting for the office.

"We would not know how many Senators are nursing the ambition, but we know we have (Mark) who is contesting, we have been seeing him and have exchanged views with him. I have made my position known and at the last count, 77 Senators have endorsed Mark. Maybe on Tuesday we will be able to add more.

"Other people or interest groups in the Senate who are not within have been holding discussions with us. We are mindful of the fact that some people are equally holding meetings."

But zoning is taking a hit in the House of Representatives where the camp of Aminu Tambuwal, the Deputy Chief Whip, is upbeat that things are looking up for him to be elected Speaker on June 7.

With more than 200 of the 360-member House reportedly backing him, his supporters believe that he will be the next Speaker, after Dimeji Bankole, signalling a paradigm shift, especially as that will go against the wishes of the PDP which zoned the job to the South West.

Both President Goodluck Jonathan and the party are not comfortable with the move, and have met with Tambuwal (PDP, Sokoto - North West) and his supporters to explain why they are ignoring the zoning arrangement intended to ensure regional balance.

At each of the meetings last week, the Tambuwal camp explained that it is more interested in the stability of the House and Jonathan's government so that the PDP would deliver the best to Nigerians.

Tambuwal said the move has nothing to do with his personal ambition but is a collective decision of members who want a change from bad leadership.

He explained that if those pushing the agenda drop it, he would equally quit the race, but he would equally not want to disappoint his colleagues whose interest is to restore the lost glory of the House.

Besides, the camp sees it as antithetical to abandon zoning in the Senate and promote it in the House, adding that if the party sees the need to leave the Upper Chamber out of the zoning arrangement because of its positive current leadership, there is nothing stopping it from applying the same principle in the House.

A House member said at the weekend that the plan to make Tambuwal Speaker is a foreclosed crusade by those looking for a change from the old order.

His words: "In the zoning arrangement, whatever zone the President comes from, the Senate President comes from there too. We had that between 1999 and 2007 when the President was from the South. From 2007 when the President emerged from the North, the Senate President came from the North also.

"Now by divine intervention, the President has gone to the South again, but our party has said that it wants to retain the Senate President in the North. The reason is that it is not difficult to see the positive role the current occupant, David Mark, has played in stabilising the Senate.

So, that is what we are also seeking for the House. Why should we abandon the same principle in the House? They have called us to a meeting and we have explained this to them. We are not confronting anybody, we are just looking for the best for the country.

"We believe in our party, but we are also mature. It is no longer a situation where somebody from outside will dictate to us on what to do. That is why we have not done as much as we ought to do and we intend to change that. We have gone beyond that. We are now engaging them in superior argument."