A Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, senator representing Delta South, Senator James Manager yesterday insisted that the election of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate followed due process.
Senator Manager who has been in the Senate since 2003, told journalists that what transpired on the floor of the Senate on June 9 was legal and in line with the 1999 Constitution, Senate Rules and Parliamentary convention. He further stressed that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, cannot blame Senate President, Saraki for the emergence of Ekweremadu of the PDP as Deputy President of the Senate.
The erstwhile Chairman of Senate Committee on Niger Delta maintained that what happened June 9 has provided a balanced Senate in view of the closeness in the numbers of Senators belonging to the two parties on the floor, adding that, “We had never had the parliament that was as balanced as this where the gap between the minority and the majority is slim, just 10 human beings. The type of transition we had recently is also alien to Africa hence we have to handle everything with absolute care and maturity.
“We must make sacrifices because so many things are bound to happen separately. We must display maturity and compromise so that the nation can move on. What we are experiencing now is democracy in action.”
While noting that the legality of the election of Saraki and Ekweremadu has been clearly stated in Section 5 of the Constitution which spells out the process of convening the Senate and the election of Presiding Officers, the Senator said: “How elections are conducted to the National Assembly, and how a presiding officer can be removed, are provided for under Section 5 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
“Section 64 ( 1 ) of the Constitution reads, “The Senate and the House of Representatives shall each stands dissolved at the expiration of a period of four years commencing from the date of first sitting of the House. Section 64 ( 3 ) states that “Subject to the provisions of this constitution, the person elected as the president shall have power to issue a proclamation for the holding of the first session for the National Assembly immediately after he was being sworn in or for its dissolution as provided in this section.
“The president cannot wake up one day to dissolve the parliament because there is already a provision for that except the extra ordinary happens which we pray not to happen because democracy has come to stay in this country, so the new legislative year won’t come to an end until the 9th of June 2019.
“The proclamation was made and going by our rule book, Rule 1 ( b ) in all cases not provided for, hereafter or by sectional or other order, or practice of the Senate, the senate shall by resolution, regulate its own procedure.
“From 1999 till date, once a proclamation is made, the first sitting of the senate is the election of the presiding officers. That has come to stay. Of course, at 10:00am prompt. There must be a roll call. All senators are expected to be present at that time to answer his name.
“If somebody who was supposed to be there on that day was not there, and he is still in his home state, it is not the business of anybody. The request was made by the Clerk to the National Assembly after the roll call on June 9, whether there were people who want to nominate somebody to the office of president of the senate and there was a nomination.
“It is not the business of another senator looking around to see whether any other senator was there or not. As far as I am concerned, what happened that day, was in order because that is what National Assembly is used to doing. Everything about National Assembly is law and practice. I would not know whether some people were invited somewhere or not,” he stated.
Reacting to whether the election of the two presiding officers met the required quorum, Senator Manager who affirmed that a quorum was formed, however noted that the time has come for all stakeholders to face governance.
He added that: “Those who participated in the election on that day formed the quorum. It is not correct that two-third was needed to elect presiding officers, the law only recognize simple majority and this is what happened.
“Let us come together in the interest of our people. If mistakes had been committed it is better to correct it so that the legislature would remain the same. Presiding officers had emerged and the principal officers are emerging.”
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