When the Senate Spokesman, Sabi Abdullahi, said the alleged conspiracy in the Senate was the figment of imagination of those behind it, he was only referring to actions of the Unity Forum Senators and their battle against the leadership of Dr. Bukola Saraki, continuously being spearheaded by Kabiru Marafa and his man, Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North) Senatorial District.
His words: “The Senate wishes to state categorically that there is no conspiracy of any nature among distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The consummation of conspiracy is in the figment of the imagination of those behind it.”
Senator Sabi reasoned that those Senators should have taken into consideration their primary assignment of lawmaking and a show of commitment to change mantra rather than indulging in actions capable of promoting hatred and disunity in the 8th Senate.
“The perception and action of APC Unity Forum were capable of promoting hatred and disunity in the Senate while there was daunting challenges facing the nation which we should help to tackle,” he said.
The vexed issue obviously is a sub -section of 5 months leadership tussle that has permeated the Senate following Saraki’s emergence as the Senate President despite taking a critical step to douse tension by creating new Committees with bulk of those Committees leadership alloted to the majority party, contrary to what happened at the House of Representatives which had almost equal representation.
The announcement of 65 standing Committees penultimate week by Saraki drew the ire of the Unity Forum when Senator Kabiru Marafa through a point of Order at plenary on Thursday, 12th November, spoke uninterruptedly for 40 minutes, explaining that those Committees were not properly constituted. He cited relevant sections of Senate Standing Orders which were not followed vis-a-vis lopsidedness in geographical considerations, a long standing tradition that was abandoned.
The arrowhead of Unity Forum who is the Committee Chairman on the newly created Committee on National Identity and National Population called on Saraki to apologize to Nigerians for abusing his powers and causing confusion in the Senate while pointing that if those Committees continue to exist against this backdrop, they remain Saraki’s private Committees.
“Gentlemen, I have raised critical issues on the floor of the Senate that due process was not followed in allotment of Committee Chairmen and their deputies, the selection Committee itself was a nullity and their recommendation that led to allocation of leadership was null and void. Dr Bukola Saraki should apologize to Nigerians for causing confusion in the Senate,” Marafa said.
Accordingly, the House Committee Chairman on Power, Senator James Manager expressed concern on the turn of events that for Marafa to have spoken for nearly 40 minutes in opposition to Committee’s formation without checking him, something unassuming might have been in the offing.
Again, it was considered a sacrilege for the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu to preside over plenary on Saraki’s absence having gone to the villa to witness the inauguration of Buhari’s cabinet. APC Senators, mostly from the Unity Forum staged a walkout as he took seat to begin sessions on Wednesday, 11th November, 2015, saying they would never participate in sessions presided by Ekweremadu.
The action of APC Senators on that Wednesday, has created further volatile situation that would redefine Saraki’s leadership towards the direction of crisis and a reminder of injuries sustained by Senator Ahmed Lawan’s group that contended for Senate leadership but failed.
Since the inauguration of the 8th Assembly under the leadership of Dr. Bukola Saraki on June 29th and following the mystery of Ike Ekweremadu’s emergence as Deputy Senate President despite being in the minority Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, he had never presided over plenary which is a privilege attached to him as ‘delegatus non protest delegare’, hence, their protest has been overtaken by events and if these sentiments were not nipped in the bud, it would lead to abysmal performance of the 8th Senate as time is fast running with much energy dissipated on ego war since the last 5 months.
Not deterred by the development, Ekweremadu further called the shot and for the first time, he lampooned the APC led administration at the Peoples Democratic Party National conference in Abuja on Thursday, when he submitted that they have failed Nigerians by failing to implement promises that got them into power in the last 5 months. “They promised to create 3,000 jobs per annum, they promised to pay N5,000 stipend to the unemployed, they promised to provide free meal to school pupils and so on, what have they done in the last five months? They have failed Nigerians”, Ekweremadu stated.
The Deputy Senate President, DAILY POST learnt is not ready to play the ostrich anymore, and that although he is a in the minority with a strategic position, he is no weaklings.
Reacting to Ekweremadu’s outburst, a ranking Senator from South East on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, who pleaded anonymity in an interaction with our correspondent on Friday condemned him, stressing that he ought not to have made such sweeping statement in view of the fact that they only spent six months. He argued that you cannot judge an administration that has just spent barely six months out of 48 months. “In all fairness, the Deputy Senate President ought not to have made that sweeping statement because APC is just barely six months and if we are to provide credible opposition, as it may, we should give APC sometime so we could look back and have something to hold unto”, he noted.
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