Nigerian Senate President To Declare For President This Week

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, will this week declare his intention to run for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), barring a last-minute change of plans.

Sources close to Mr Lawan said he had been testing the waters for months and eventually decided to make the declaration after Sallah at the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan.

The APC will close the sale of its expression of interest and nomination forms on Friday and Mr Lawan is expected to announce his interest before picking the forms.

When he does, he would become the second person from the Northern part of the country to seek the APC presidential nomination after Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello.

It was implied that the APC had zoned the ticket to the southern zones after early this year agreeing that North and South would swap the national party offices they were holding before the March 26 National Convention of the party.

The convention saw the emergence of Abdullahi Adamu as the first National Chairman of the party from a northern zone.

With President Muhammadu Buhari rounding up his second term, it was assumed that his successor would come from the other side of the Rivers Niger and Benue.

However, on Friday, Mr Adamu said the APC was yet to take a decision on zoning, and by implication on where its presidential candidate will come from.

Mr Lawan has been at the National Assembly since 1999, serving two terms in the House of Representatives before moving to the Senate in 2007.

-Premiumtimes