Orji Kalu Could Be Next Senate President – APC Sources; Izunaso On Standby

By Adesina Soyooye

If fillers from the National Leadership of the  ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is anything to by, the current Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, could become the next Senate President.

As the APC’s Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu, has been declared the President-elect, the Party is trying to balance high-profile offices among the six geopolitical Zones of the Country

Tinubu is from the South-west, while his Deputy, Kashim Shettima is from the North-east.

Sources from the Party told this magazine that the Party would Zone the office of the Senate President to the South-east. If it is zoned to the Zone, it means the highest ranking Senator from there would get it. Currently, Kalu the Senate Chief Whip, is the highest ranking Senator from the Zone.

As the Chief Whip, he is number four in the Senate hierarchy behind  the Senate President, Deputy Senate President and the Majority Leader.

With the APC winning the most seats in the Senate, it is taken for granted that it would produce the Senate President which is currently occupied by Senator Ahmed Lawan, PhD. Ahmed is from the same Zone as Vice President-elect, Senator Shettima.

Since first timers hardly occupy the office of the Senate President, and other APC Senators from the South-east are first-timers, the other Senator-elect who could compete with Orji for the office, if indeed it is zoned to the South-east, is Senator Osita Izunaso.

Izunaso was first elected to the Senate in 2007 to represent Imo West, under the Peoples Democratic Party’s Government. But he was defeated after serving one term, and had been trying since that loss to get back to the Senate. Now, in the APC, after decamping from the PDP, and serving as APC’s Organising Secretary, he got lucky on February 25, 2023, when he won back the Senate seat.

Being his second time in the Senate, Izunaso cannot quite be regarded as a green horn in the National Assembly.

In 2022, Orji Kalu had declared interest in running for the office of the President of the Federal Republic, but later withdrew, long before the Primary, and picked the Senatorial election form. Thereafter, he gave his full support to the Presidential ambition of Lawan, and transferred same to Tinubu when he won the Primaries.

In 1999, the Senate President was zoned to the South-east. But it became a shame when one after the other they were impeached. The office went round the five States of the South-east  States – Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Evan Enwerem, Adolphus Wabara, Anyim Pius Anyim, Ken Nnamani.