Lawan’s district APC ticket holder eyes senate presidency in 2023

Bashir Sheriff Machina, the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket holder for Yobe North Senatorial district, has expressed a possibility that he might become the next senate president.

Machina has been under pressure to relinquish the ticket to incumbent president of Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan –who currently represents the district.

He has however refused. Machina said Lawan had no right to the ticket.

“We were lucky that our senator became the Senate President. By becoming the Senate President there’s nothing… Any Senator can be the Senate President. I may likely be the next Senate President. Who knows? I was in the National Assembly long before Ahmad,” said Machina who was first elected a Federal Lawmaker in 1990.

“Surely, I am not going back. I wrote letter to the party to say I am staying in the race. There is nowhere in the party guidelines that says the ticket should at any time be given to some one that didn’t participate in the primary,” he said.

“The voluntary withdrawal form was attached to the nomination form which was about 16 pages. Form 15 is withdrawal form, so I simply left it. I didn’t fill it because I felt I was not going to withdraw from the contest. And there is no place in the form that says he must fill all the forms.”

Machina said if Lawan were serious about his legislative role, he would not have gone into the contest for the presidential ticket which he lost.

Machina denied he was being used by the Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni, who is alleged to be opposed to Lawan.

Lawan had contested, but lost the presidential ticket of the party to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.