Following the allegation that it was the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, that facilitated the emergence of Senator Ali Ndume as Senate Leader by refusing to name Ahmad Lawan for the position, a member of the upper legislative chamber, Hamma Isa Misau has exonerated Saraki from the allegation.

Misau, who represents Bauchi Central at the Senate told newsmen that the Senate President should not be blamed for the inability of Lawan to emerge as majority leader of the Eighth Senate as proposed by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He noted that rather than blame Saraki, a good number of the lawmakers were not aware of Lawal’s intention to be Majority Leader, adding that members of the North-east caucus of the APC in the Senate that overwhelmingly voted against party decision, rather preferred Senator Ali Ndume as the leader.

According to him, out of the 11 Senators who are members of the caucus, eight voted for Ndume while three voted for Lawan and that since politics is a game of numbers, the candidate with majority of the Senators emerged as leader.

Misau noted that the explanation became necessary in view of the belief that the Senate President deliberately antagonized the party leadership by refusing to name Lawan and the others into leadership positions, thereby favouring a ‘winner takes all’ arrangement.

“Many people do not know or understand what happened then. Truly, many of us prefer Ndume to Lawan. The fact that Ndume contested for the post of Deputy Senate President and sought the support of most senators made it easy for him to get our support.

“In any case, Senator Lawan never told anybody that he was interested in the post of majority leader. We therefore voted for a person who actually lobbied and sought for our support. So, we take responsibility for our decisions. Nobody should blame the Senate President,” he said.