As the race for the 10th senate presidency continues to gather momentum, quite a handful of newly elected senators from different geopolitical zones have shown interest in becoming the third most powerful man in the country.

The All Progressives Congress (APC), having won 59 out of the 109 seats available, emerged the majority party in the upper legislative chamber. Consequently, the party is expected to produce a new senate president come June.

While some Nigerians have said that the party leadership should seek competence and experience when electing a leader for the top job in the Senate, others have said whoever gets the job should be one that has no controversial past.

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Ironically, the frontrunners that have shown interest in taking up the position have controversial pasts.

ORJI UZOR KALU

Orji Uzor Kalu was the Governor of Abia State from 1999 to 2007. In 2019, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Lagos High Court for defrauding the government of Abia State while in office as governor.

Kalu was accused of using Slok Nigeria Ltd., his company, to perpetrate N7.65 billion fraud. He was then detained in Ikoyi Prison in Lagos following a court ruling.

However, in May 2020, a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court declared Kalu’s conviction null and void, setting aside the 2019 judgement of Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The apex court stated that Justice Idris was already a justice of the Court of Appeal at the time he delivered the judgment sentencing Kalu. A retrial was ordered by the court and Kalu was released from the Nigerian Correctional Service, Kuje, Abuja, on June 3, 2020.

Orji Uzor Kalu is presently the senator representing Abia North Senatorial District in the ninth national assembly. He also holds a principal position as the chief whip of the Senate.

On February 25, Kalu was once again re-elected by the people of his district for another four-year term. He has since signified interest in becoming Nigeria’s next Senate President.

AHMED LAWAN

On June 11, 2019, Ahmed Lawan was elected and sworn in as the Senate President of Nigeria.

In August 2021, Lawan and other legislators were accused of receiving a $10 million bribe to guarantee the legislation’s passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). Before the allegation was made, the bill had faced significant public opposition, as part of it was deemed controversial.

Lawan would later deny the allegation, stating that the report was unwarranted, unproven and false.

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He then went on to say Nigerians should always think positively about their leaders and their governments.

Lawan would once again make the news in May 2022, when the APC conducted senatorial primaries to select the next senatorial candidate expected to represent Yobe North Senatorial District.

The Senate President did not participate in the primaries because he was eyeing the party’s presidential ticket during the period.

At the end of the primary, Bashir Machina was declared winner.

However, the APC would later cancel the primary, alleging that the person that conducted the May primary election was not nominated by its National Working Committee (NWC). After this, the party chose not to submit Machina’s name to INEC as its candidate for the general election.

Machina protested the party’s decision, claiming that some forces within the party were trying to snatch the ticket from him.

On June 9, 2022, APC’s NWC conducted another primary election, and this time around, Lawan, after losing out in the presidential primary, participated in it. Machina did not participate in the process.

In the end, Lawan was declared winner.

As a result of the confusion that followed over who the party’s legitimate aspirant was, INEC resorted to leaving the district’s candidacy empty when it released the full list of candidates across the country.

Machina would then file a suit at the Federal High Court in Damaturu, Yobe State, challenging the APC’s action and praying the court to declare him the authentic senatorial candidate.

In September 2022, the court declared Machina winner and ordered the APC and INEC to recognise him as the candidate. The Court of Appeal in Abuja would also later affirm Machina as the party’s authentic candidate.

When the matter got to the Supreme Court however, the decision of the Court of Appeal was set aside, and Lawan, in a controversial ruling, was declared the party’s candidate.

After winning at the February 25 polls, Lawan has once again signified interest in retaining his post as the Senate President come June.

DAVID UMAHI

On March 23, David Umahi, a former Governor of Ebonyi State,  declared interest in becoming the next Senate President.

After leaving office as governor, Umahi contested in the last general election and emerged as the senator-elect for Ebonyi South Senatorial District.

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Before becoming an incoming member of the 10th assembly however, Umahi was a subject of controversy as governor.

In March 2022, Umahi was sacked as Ebonyi State Governor by a high court sitting in Abuja for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on whose platform the was elected in 2019, to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The court ruled that the votes polled by a political party could not be transferred to or utilised for the benefit of another political party or member of another political party.

In late 2022, a court of appeal upturned the high court verdict.

The appellate court held that there was no constitutional provision for the removal of a serving governor or deputy governor who decamped from the political party that sponsored them to power.

ALI NDUME

In April, Ali Ndume, the senator-elect for Borno South Senatorial District, expressed his readiness to contest the senate presidency seat in the 10th National Assembly.

While making the announcement, Ndume also controversially stated that the office ought not to be zoned to the south as the party did not make use of the zoning option during its presidential primary.

Ndume is not new to controversies.

In 2017, he was suspended for six months by the eighth Senate after he alleged that Bukola Saraki, who was the then Senate President, imported a bulletproof range rover with fake documents.

During the period, Ndume also alleged that Dino Melaye, the then senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, had committed perjury in terms of his educational qualification.

He was subsequently removed as a senate majority leader and also suspended for six months by the leadership of the upper legislative chamber.

While handing the punishment to Ndume, the Senate said he had failed to conduct a proper investigation before making the allegations.

In November 2020, a high court sitting in Abuja, ordered Ndume to be remanded in Kuje Prison following the refusal of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairperson of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team (PRTT), to appear for his trial.

Maina had then be charged with 12 counts of money laundering.

While standing trial, the senator stood surety for the PRTT chairperson, but the latter would jump bail.

In December 2022, Maina was eventually re-arrested in Niger Republic, where he had fled to.

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Ndume was also questioned by law enforcements officials in 2011 after it was alleged that he had links with Boko Haram Islamist militants.

ABDUL’AZIZ YARI

In April, Abdul’aziz Yari, former Zamfara State Governor and the senator-elect for Zamfara West Senatorial District, declared his intention to run for the Senate’s top job.

In June 2022 however, news made the rounds that Yari had conspired with Ahmed Idris, the embattled Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), in an alleged N84 billion fraud being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

It was also said that Yari spent a portion of the N20 billion he made from the fraud on a trip to Saudi Arabia.

The two were said to have converted the funds to private use between February 2021 and November 2021.

The matter is still in court.