A former member of the House of Representatives, now lecturer in a university, Dr. Haruna Yerima has warned that a Senate taken over by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will spell doom for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, pointing out that the opposition party only needs three senators to become the majority in the Senate.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, he called on Buhari and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to take measures to stop the PDP from taking over leadership of the Senate, asserting that what transpired during the election of the Senate President last June should be an eye-opener.
Stressing that with the ongoing criminal trial of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, “something strategic must be done to avert the National Assembly’s ridiculing of the president,” the APC chieftain held that “the ruling party and the presidency must ensure that the ranks and files of APC senators remain intact.”
According to him, “You can imagine what will happen if the PDP takes over the Senate. What happened during the election of Saraki in June, last year, is an eye opener. There will be problems for Buhari’s government if the PDP takes over the Senate.
“If Saraki finally resigns or is found guilty, who takes over? We can only dismiss the possibilities of PDP’s taking over at our own peril. The PDP requires only three senators to form the majority. It is easier for them because the Saraki diehards in the APC will support them.
“Where the pendulum of some former governors in the Senate will swing to is clear, going by their antecedents. This should worry any believer in Buhari’s change agenda. The progressive policies of the president, which require the lawmakers’ nod will be jeopardised.”
Yerima, while alleging that the policy direction of the current National Assembly was antithetical to Buhari’s Change agenda, SAID “The unpopular buying of luxury cars for lawmakers, the controversial amendments of the Code of Conduct Bureau laws, the budget debacle are pointers to the fact that it will get worse if eventually the PDP takes over the Senate.”
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