By Kamil Opeyemi
Sen. Jibrin Barau (APC-Kano) on Wednesday declared that he was the most experienced candidate for the 10th Senate Presidency.
He said this when he spoke with newsmen in Abuja.
Barau, who represents Kano North Senatorial District said that with the array of candidates who had indicated interest for the position, he was the most competent.
“I want to tell you that I intend to seek to be the 10th Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“In a few weeks, I will make a formal declaration,” he said.
Barau, who is also the Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation
said that the Legislature was a distinct arm of government that worked on competence.
“It doesn’t work on sentiments it works on your ability to do the job. It is the tradition all over the world. It is there in our rules and this rule is a product of our constitution.
“It is clearly in our Standing Rules too that aspiration or election for the Office of the Senate President shall be in accordance with ranking.
“And among those who are seeing to occupy that office as we speak, I have the highest ranking. I’m the most experienced.
“The issue is that of competence, you need to be grounded in procedure of legislation before you are able to be the President of the Senate.
“Do you now relegate competence for other sentiments?”.
He further said that the position of the Senate President was not based on religion.
“You remember there was a time the Senate President, David Mark and his Deputy, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu were christians
“At that same time in the House of Representatives, Patricia Etteh was the Speaker.
“This is because they were the most experienced at that time. That is the tradition.
“Do we now relegate competence to the background? It is not possible. If you are talking about sentiments, North-West deserves the senate presidency.
“Bringing religious sentiments won’t fly,” he said.
Barau also said that the Legislature was that arm of government that needed to work hard to check the Executive.
“So, when you bring that kind of sentiments into the legislature, you are not doing well for that arm of government. We need to remove that sentiment,” he said.
Barau contested in the elections of 1999 for the House of Representatives to represent Tarauni Federal Constituency of Kano State which he won.
While in the House of Representatives, he served as the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations.
He was also a member of the House of Representative’s Committee on Power.
After he completed his term at the House of Representatives, Barau returned back to private practice.
He later served as the Chairman of the Kano State Investment and Properties Ltd, a Company wholly owned by the Kano State Government.
He was one time Commissioner of Science and Technology in Kano State.
He was appointed in 2001 to serve as a member of a committee set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to review the Nigeria’s Budgetary process.
In 2009, he was appointed by the Kano State Government as a member of the Kano State Business Incentive Committee; a position in which he acquainted himself credibly.
On his return to electoral contest in 2015, Sen. Barau contested and won election to the Senate of Federal Republic of Nigeria, representing Kano North Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
At the Senate, Barau was appointed the Vice – Chairman Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) of the Senate, and subsequently became the Chairman of the same Committee.
He was re-assigned to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETfund as the Chairman of the Committee in 2016 Barau is member of the Committee on Niger Delta, Industries, Land Transportation and Appropriations.
He was reelected for a third term on Feb. 25.