Hear my cry, O God attend unto my prayer. From the end of the Earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwelmed; please lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.

Proverbs 61:1 &2

The Nation is witnessing for the first time a transition from a 'ruling' Political Party to one that has been in opposition (at least at Federal level) for all its 'mergered' life. We cannot but be grateful to God, who, through His infinite mercies and unsearchable wisdom, has brought this about in our lifetime.

About this time last year, 2014, the possibility of this happening, even to the most optimistic among us, must have been very grim. This is not for lack of faith, but partly because of the way the then, ruling party conducted the affairs of this country. Some beneficiaries of these skewed selection processes in the past even attested to its crookedness and promised to do something about it but never did.

The 2015 General elections by the grace of God, and the introduction of the Permanent Voter Card and card readers, has produced for us, an election that is being adjudged the most free, fair and maybe, better than the inconclusive June 12, 1993 general elections, in credibility.

The President and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has been sworn in and has taken charge of affairs of the Nigerian nation, so were the executive governors of the 29 states where governorship elections held. One of the first tasks of the heads of government is to convene the various legislative houses. This will kick-start the act of governance at the federal and state levels in accordance with the principle of separation of powers as contained in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

For the president, vice president, the executive governors and their deputies, their swearing-in on May 29, 2015 has rolled them out onto the tracks as their roles and duties are clearly spelt out in the 1999 Constitution, and they can hit the ground running as soon as they are through with the assemblage of their cabinet and other agents and foot soldiers.

For the federal and state Legislatures however, their first task after being convened, is the election of their principal officers, who will preside over the affairs of the various chambers; the elections of the president of the Senate and his deputy to preside over the Senate, and Speakers and their deputies to preside over the affairs of House of Representatives in and the various Houses of Assembly.

The media-print, electronic, social and the entire citizens have been awash for some time now with speculations, analyses, conjectures and implants as to who emerges as the president of the 8th Senate thereby becoming the nation's number 3 citizen, the first and second citizenship slots having been already filled by President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The four names that have popped up persistently each time the Presidency of the 8th Senate is discussed are: Distinguished Senator David Boneventure Alechenu Mark, the President of the 7th Senate and representative of zone C (Benue South Senatorial District) of Benue State since the inception of the 4th Republic in 1999 (even though the PDP has declined interest as a Party). Next is Distinguished Senator Ahmad Lawan, who, like David Mark, has been in the National Assembly for as long, representing Yobe North Senatorial District. There is also Distinguished Senator George Akume, a former two-term Governor of Benue State (1999-2007) and a two-term and returning Senator representing Zone B (Benue North-West Senatorial District) of Benue State. The last and by no means the least, is Distinguished Senator Abubakar Olubukola Saraki, a scion of the Kwara State political strongman and Senate leader in the Second Republic, the late Senator Olusola Abubakar Saraki. He is also a former two- term Governor of Kwara State (2003-2011) and a 2nd term returning Senator representing Kwara Central, replacing his younger sister who had represented that Senatorial District all the while he was governor of the state.

To my mind, of the four gladiators, the incumbent President of the 7th Senate, David Mark, brings up the rear in the chances of emergence. This is because as it stands, the 8th Senate will open, 49 PDP Senators against APC's 59 (following the demise of Senator Zannah from Borno State). That is of course, assuming that the APC Senators put their house in order, put up a single candidate for the contest against Mark, should he insist on running, and the Senators vote along party lines. That also depends on if the incumbent Senate President's guardian, Saint Bonaventure does not intervene in his favour as he has always done.

The remaining contenders, namely Lawan, Akume and Saraki, have one thing in common; they are all members of the APC. Thereafter comes their defining difference. Ahmad Lawan and Abubakar Olubukola Saraki are Muslims, while George Akume is a Christian. Akume, a Tiv from Benue State and Saraki, Yoruba (or Fulani - I am not sure what his preference will be in this circumstance) are both from the North Central geopolitical zone, while Lawan is Bade from Yobe state in the North-East geopolitical zone.

Given the written and unwritten conventions as much as possible reflecting the federal character of the Nigerian State in all facets of our national endeavours, and the principles of all-inclusiveness whereby attempt is made to ensure that no one feels left out, even if only psychologically, I want to posit that for the sake of the northern Christian minorities' community, which he symbolises, Akume be given a fighting chance against Mark. This is because aside the fact that both distinguished Senators hail from Benue state, and such a contest, should it ever occur, adding zest to their home grown Tiv-Idoma healthy rivalry, it will give the Christian northern minorities on both sides of the political divide something to cheer, like supporters of two opposing teams during a local derby.

All through the keenly contested APC primary elections up to the bitterly fought general elections, there have been attempts (rightly or wrongly) to paint the APC as a Muslim/Islamic party. Some mischief makers even went the extra mile of insinuating that APC is the political arm of the Boko Haram insurgents that have declared war on the Nigerian State since 2009. The Northern Christian minorities members of the Party have been inundated with taunts about their continued membership of the APC, with some making assertions that they are in the wrong place, especially with the continuous 'ethnicisation' and 'religionisation' of the political space by the PDP and the then President, who was always quick to use borrowed pulpits to make policy statements and skewed political remarks that pitched the populace into a 'them versus us' posture. A sister once forwarded a message through the social media about the Bisi Akande-led interim National Executive Council of the APC, which was said to be made up of 90% Muslims, purporting it to be current National Executive Council of the APC and concluding the message with an insinuation that APC has an Islamic agenda (whatever that means) and intends to Islamise Nigeria on assumption of power.

As much as attempts were made to discountenance such insinuations, the attitude of the party's top apparatchik of recent to Akume's bid for the Senate Presidency tends to suggest that the proponents of such notions may know a thing or two that their kinsmen, members of the APC, are blinded to by our belief that everyone that shouts 'change' believes in the equality of all within the 'Change Wagon'.

I have heard it said that an APC strongman of North-western extraction is said to have openly expressed the opinion that the Presidency of the Senate has dwelled in the North Central geopolitical zone and particularly in Benue State for too long. If true, then I find this assertion akin to the Biblical treatise of a man with logs in his eyes, wanting to remove the speck in his brother's eye without first removing the one in his own eyes. A cursory look at those who have had the privilege of leading Nigeria and are of Northern Nigerian ancestry from independence from British rule to date, both civilian and military, namely from Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to President Muhammadu Buhari, will reveal that only four, namely, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, General Yakubu Gowon (retd.) and the two Minna hilltop retired Generals, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) and Abdulsalami Abubakar (AA), have ancestry outside the North West geopolitical zone as constituted. The rest, namely General Murtala Ramat Muhammad, Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Sani Abacha, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and now, President Muhammadu Buhari, are all from the North West geopolitical zone. Come to think of it, Niger, the home state of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar, was carved out of the North-western State, so they have a North Western geopolitical zonal ancestral connectivity. General Yakubu Gowon spent his formative years in Wusasa Zaria. His (their) extended family and 'family' house are still there. He even contested primary elections there in the 3rd Republic. That too, technically makes him indigenous to the North West geopolitical zone. Only Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, though from the Christian-dominated Sayawa district of present Bauchi State, was external to the North West geopolitical zone as constituted.

Therefore, as it stands, eight out of the nine persons of Northern Nigerian origin, who have had the honour and privilege of leading Nigeria either as civilian or military presidents or heads of state, are from the North West geopolitical zone. With two of them, Yar'Adua and Buhari, actually coming in quick succession from the same Katsina State and Buhari doing so twice. Their tenures only interspersed by the 5-year reign of Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. Where then is the justification for the APC strongman with these logs in his eyes attempting to remove the speck of 8 years that the Presidency of the Senate dwelled with a Northern Christian Idoma man, who is a minority even in his home state of Benue?

The aspiration to the Presidency of the 8th Senate by Akume means the world to the Northern Christian minority community be they from Numan, Hawull, Igede, Kuburshosho, Zing, Baro, Dabai and a host of other places. Because, agreed, the Buhari 'guguwa' (whirlwind) blew into government 'Mr Intergrity', 'Gaskiya dokin karfe' albeit, with some dust, the electoral successes achieved in some of the now APC states like Plateau and Benue cannot be credited to the Buhari tsunami alone. For example, former governor Jonah David Jang's attempt to swap places with not only his fellow Berom kinsman but his cousin, Senator Pwajok, in the Senate and Government House respectively, resulted in the 'protest' votes that aided the tsunami to blow away the PDP from one of its traditional stronghold and comfort zone. PDP had become entrenched on the Plateau chiefly because of the delusion that PDP is a 'Christian' party backed with religion-based political messages and a fear that Buhari and APC have an Islamic agenda for Nigeria. In Benue state, a similar scenario played out with Suswam attempting to go beyond playing godfather to playing 'god'. It took Akume's doggedness and dexterity to spearhead the movement that not only neutralised Suswam, but reached over into neighbouring Nasarawa State, to lend a wind into Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura's sail , maybe not a whirl one, but strong enough to bring him home and dry.

>It should not also be taken for granted that but for the 'killer' votes brought in by the Northern Christian minority states, the 2015 presidential elections might have gone into a run-off, after PMB and GEJ neutralised each other with mega votes from the ancestral areas. PMB came in first with a million plus votes from his home state of Katsina, its neighbour Kano, etc and GEJ replied with his own million plus votes from his Bayelsa home state, neighbours of Rivers and Delta as all the registered voters in his Bayelsa did not put them in a million plus votes' class.

We are in a democracy, a system of government that guarantees freedom; freedom of speech, association, to worship and even aspiration. It is therefore within the constitutional rights of Mark, president of the 7th Senate to seek a third term as its president, having been in that capacity since the 6th Senate. But why would he want to do that? Another President from the executive arm of government in this country wanted a third term and Mark, then, as a floor member of the Senate, was a key member of those who killed the ambition. See what another presidential third term ambition is causing in Burundi. Maybe, there is a jinx on third term presidential ambitions. Therefore, it may not be a good idea pushing his Northern Christian minority luck to an unpleasant ovation-less exit.

-Elder, Kupchi Hosea Maxwell

e-mail: hoseamkupchi@gmail.com