Senator Ahmed Lawan has been elected as the Senate President for the 9th National Assembly on Tuesday.
Lawan representing Yobe North Senatorial District defeated his closet challenger Senator Ali Ndume representing Borno South.
Lawan who was backed by President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 79 votes to Ndume’s 28.
A total of 107 senators voted in the election.
Elected to the House of Representatives for the northern state of Yobe in 1999, at different times Lawan chaired the House Committees on education and agriculture.
Lawan was elected to the Senate in 2007. In 2008, he was a member of the National Assembly’s Joint Committee on Constitution Review.
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In 2009, as chairman of the Senate committee on Public Accounts, Lawan initiated and sponsored the Desertification Control Commission Bill.
In August 2009, Senator Lawan spoke against the proposed Kafin Zaki Dam. He stated that the Tiga Dam and Challawa Gorge Dam had already reduced water flow drastically, and the Jama’are River was now the main source of water in the Yobe River.
He said the dams caused intense poverty, increased desert encroachment, migration and conflicts between arable farmers and herdsmen.
Lawan ran for reelection in Yobe North Senatorial District on the ANPP platform in the 9 April 2011 elections.
He won with 92,799 votes, trailed by Hassan Kafayos Hussaini of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with 76,960 votes.
