Ahmed Lawan, Senate President

Senator Ahmed Lawan has just been elected President of the Senate of the 9th National Assembly. He defeated Ali Ndume, his main challenger by scoring 79 of the votes cast to 28 by his opponent. 107 Senators voted in the election.

Here are some facts about the new Senate President, according to Wikipedia

Mohammed Ali Ndume is a Nigerian politician who was a member of the Federal House of Representatives from 2003 to 2011. He was elected to the Senate for Borno South, Borno State, Nigeria in April 2011 running on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ticket.

Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume was born on 20 November 1959 in Gwoza Town of Borno State. He attended Gadamayo Primary School in Gwoza and completed in 1972. Ndume proceeded to Comprehensive Secondary School Mubi in then Gongola now Adamawa State from 1973 to 1978 where he obtained Secondary School Certificate and WASC and passed with Division One.

Ali Ndume was cut out early in life for Leadership position as he was appointed Junior House Captain and promoted to House Captain in his final year in Secondary School. His exceptional superlative brilliance saw him emerging in constant First position in class at Comprehensive Secondary School Mubi. On completion of Secondary School he went on to Kaduna Polytechnic to study Marketing in 1978.

He completed his Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in 1980 and Higher National Diploma (HND) in Marketing in 1982 at Upper Credit level. Ndume proceeded to Federal Polytechnic Ilaro in Ogun State between 1982 – 1983 for his compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). He joined the famous Ramat Polytechnic Maiduguri as a lecturer in 1983 rising to the rank of a Senior Lecturer. In 1988, Ndume was awarded the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Post-Graduate Scholarship to study Business and Computer Education at the University of Toledo Ohio, United States of America and graduated with a B.Ed and M.Ed in 1990 and was awarded Magna Cum Laude academic honour. He was also admitted into the Phi Kappa Phi academic society for outstanding performance. On graduation, Ndume returned to Nigeria and continued with his teaching career with the Ramat Polytechnic Maiduguri, Borno State until 2003, when he entered politics.
ANPP politician

In 2003, Ndume was elected to represent his people for the seat of Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives on the platform of ANPP: a position he occupied from 2003 – 2011. On the inauguration of the sixth (6th) Assembly in 2007, he was unanimously elected as the Minority Leader and served creditably. Due to the political disagreements in his Party in his home State of Borno, he left the ANPP.

In December 2010 barely 100days to 2011 elections Ndume decamped to the PDP, citing the injustices going on in the party as his reason for leaving the ANPP. He said the people from the grassroots of Southern Borno were solidly behind him.[2] He said that he was not being given a level playing ground in the competition with other ANPP aspirants for candidature in the Senate election. Apparently he had fallen out with Governor Ali Modu Sheriff.[3] Ndume’s defection to the PDP was seen as a major blow to the ANPP. He was said to have been the major financer and the back-bone of ANPP in the Borno-South senatorial zone, and was considered one of the most dynamic of the lawmakers from the northeast zone.

Following Ndume’s defection, the PDP re-opened the sale of nomination forms. Alhaji Sanda Garba, who had been the only aspirant for the South Borno Senate seat, stepped down to make way for Ndume as the PDP candidate. In the election, Ndume won 146,403 votes, ahead of Dr. Asaba Vilita Bashir of the ANPP with 133,734 votes and Alhaji Unaru Ibrahim of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with 20,414 votes. Ndume served as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on MDGs In the (7th) Senate and remained vibrant and active in the political landscape. Senator Ndume has moved several Motions and sponsored many Bills which are at various stages of passage in the Parliament notable amongst them is the Constituencies Development Fund Bill and Electoral Act Amendment Bill to enable IDPs vote in 2015 elections.

Political alignments and re-alignments saw him forming nPDP with 20 of his colleagues which eventually coalesced into APC, the present ruling party. He was re-elected in the 2015 Senatorial elections and is presently the Leader of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the 8th Assembly Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume is married to Justice Aisha and Hajia Maryam and blessed with 10 children.

Ndume was appointed to a committee established by President Goodluck Jonathan to consider opening talks with Boko Haram. He said that a military approach would not be effective due to the impossibility of identifying the target. In his view the violence would continue until the group felt they had been heard and saw that the problems of poverty and unemployment were being addressed. In November 2011, Senator Ndume was reported to be linked to Boko Haram. This alleged connection to Boko Haram was made following the Nigerian State Security Service’s interrogation of a suspected Boko Haram member and spokesman, Mallam Ali Konduga.

But this is ironical as he was mandated by government to reach out to boko haram members and that was exactly what he was doing as the boko haram suspect whom he was alleged to be having contact with was boko haram’s spokesman, how can you reach out to boko haram if not through their spokesman? On 21 November 2011 Leadership (Abuja) reported that Ndume had been arrested on trumped up charges of terrorism. It was later discovered that the former governor of Borno State Ali Modu Sheriff whom he earlier had political disagreements with has a hand in his ordeal, sources confirmed that Ali Modu Sheriff swore to deal with him, albeit this is it.

Ali Ndume has been charged over his alleged links to the Boko Haram Islamist militants where he denied charges of intimidation and breach of trust after an alleged Boko Haram spokesman said Mr Ndume had paid him to send threatening text messages.
Senate Leadership

Ali Ndume Has been the Senate Majority leader in the Nigerian Senate House after the 2016 elections and impeached by the APC Senators on 10 January 2017.

In March 2017, Ali Ndume was suspended for six months by the Senate committee on ethics and privileges headed by Senator Anyanwu, for calling for a probe into the allegations of imported bullet proof range rover with fake documents involving Senate President Bukola Saraki seized by the Nigerian Customs and that of perjury involving Senator Dino Melaye. After exonerating both Mr. Saraki and Melaye the Committee recommended a one year ban to Mr. Ndume claiming the former Senate Leader failed to conduct proper investigation before making the said allegations. In a swift response Mr. Ndume denied making any allegations against anybody. Saying he only raised the issues in the house as reported by the media.