Lawan had planned to pick up the ticket of Yobe North Senatorial District, which he had represented for 15 years, after losing the APC presidential ticket, but Machina refused to stand aside for him.
Machina told Leadership in an interview that he is coming to the Senate to improve on Lawan’s performance.
He said, “We were lucky that our senator became the Senate President. By becoming the Senate President there’s nothing… Any Senator can be the Senate President. I may likely be the next Senate President. Who knows? I was in the National Assembly long before Ahmad.”
Speaking on the call to withdraw for Lawan he said, “Surely, I am not going back. I wrote a letter to the party to say I am staying in the race. There is nowhere in the party guidelines that says the ticket should at any time be given to someone that didn’t participate in the primary.
“The voluntary withdrawal form was attached to the nomination form which was about 16 pages. Form 15 is a withdrawal form, so I simply left it. I didn’t fill it because I felt I was not going to withdraw from the contest. And there is no place in the form that says he must fill all the forms.”
He added that if Lawan was serious about his place in the Senate he would not have contested for the presidency.
