By Kayode Ibrahim
Orji Uzor Kalu, Chief Whip of the 9th Senate, is a household name in the business and political world in Nigeria and beyond.
As a pan-Nigerian with a detrabilized mindset, Kalu has built and sustained robust relationships and friendships in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Despite his Christian faith, he enjoys gargantuan goodwill among people of various religious faiths. All these attributes, no doubt, always stand him out among his contemporaries.
Just recently, Kalu, having brought uncommon dividends of democracy to his constituents, was re-elected as a senator (Abia North senatorial district) on the platform of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), making him the most ranking senator of South East extraction (Ndigbo).
With the meeting of newly elected and returning senators and members of House of Representatives with President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the leadership of the party in Abuja on Monday, March 13, it would not be out of place for the APC to zone the position of Senate President to the South East geopolitical zone, Ndigbo, as one of the three major tribes in Nigeria.
I have read many articles in the mainstream and online media sharing my position. However, some of these articles forget to recognise the fact that Nigeria has three dominant tribes, Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. Without mincing words, an Igbo man deserves the position of Senate President as the President-elect is Yoruba and Vice President-elect is Hausa. Hence, naturally, the position of Senate President should be given to Igbo.
Although I know Asiwaju Tinubu to be a fair, courageous and just leader, I hope political jobbers and desperate politicians will not slaughter the fair compensation due to Ndigbo. For the sake of equity and stability, this is the time for the President-elect and the APC to correct the imbalance in the political space of Nigeria.
I pray that God will continue to give Tinubu the strong will, as a firm believer in democratic tenets, to give Ndigbo their rightful place in the national polity.
•Ibrahim writes from Ilorin, Kwara State