"I’ll Be In Senate For Life" — Senator Bukar Ibrahim

A former governor of Yobe State, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim (APC, Yobe East), said yesterday that he will be in the Senate for life.

Ibrahim had served as Yobe governor three times before he went to the Senate in 2007. He was re-elected in 2011 and for the third time in 2015.

He is at the moment the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change.
His wife, Khadija Bukar Ibrahim, was at the House of Representatives also for the third time until President Muhammadu Buhari made her Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in 2015.

It was not clear who Bukar was sending the message to but he is from the same senatorial district as incumbent governor of the state, Ibrahim Geidam, who is also rounding up his tenure as governor.
Since 1999, many governors had transited to the Senate after they bow out of the government house.
Contributing to a debate on the 57th anniversary of the country, the former governor said only death will take him away from the upper chamber.

Bukar, who read his profile starting from his nursery, secondary and university education; as well as political career as commissioner, state governor and senator, said he would be 68 on Sunday when the country would be marking its 57 anniversary.

“We are very grateful to God and to all Nigerians. Let me categorically say, Mr. Senate President, that I will stay in the Senate until death do us part. Everybody tells me that I’m Senator for life. I’m going to be in the Senate for life..,” he said .

Responding, the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, jokingly asked the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan and Senator Mohammad Hassan, who were all from Yobe State to take note.
A lawmaker familiar with Yobe politics said the senator made the statement in response to the Yobe state governor, Ibrahim Geidam’s move to unseat him come 2019.

“He made the statement because Yobe State governor is planning to come to the Senate on expiration of his second tenure in 2019,” the lawmaker said on condition of anonymity.