‘Why Ekweremadu didn’t preside over ministerial screening’
• CCT adjourns Olusola Saraki’s trial to November 5
• Political solution to leadership crisis suffers setback
The Senate Majority Leader, Muhammed Ali Ndume, has given reasons the chamber’s Deputy President, Ike Ekweremadu, was not allowed to preside during the screening of ministerial nominees, citing differences in party affiliation.
Meanwhile, the Code of Conduct Tribunal, yesterday adjourned the trial of Senate President, Bukola Saraki to November 5 and 6.
The adjournment which was made by Chairman of the Tribunal, Danladi Umar followed the argument of prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, that the tribunal should adjourn out of respect for the Appeal Court, which reserved judgment on the suit filed by Saraki to stop his trial for alleged false declaration of assets.
In an interview with journalists at the National Assembly yesterday, Ndume spoke on why the Upper Chamber had to postpone its plenary session because of the trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), instead of continuing with the screening exercise with Ekweremadu presiding.
Ndume said: “We were thinking that the lower court would cancel the sitting of yesterday in the tribunal but it did not. And the Senate President had to be at the tribunal by 10.00am. He is the presiding officer. And this is an extraordinary time because we are screening ministers that are predominantly All Progressives Congress (APC) members. So, that was why we said this screening should continue under the Senate President presiding.
“This is not a normal day because we are screening APC nominees and there are issues surrounding it, we don’t want any other issue out of it again. The presiding officer is the Senate President who started the screening and we said we would take a day off and continue tomorrow (today). If you look at the constitution, it is not a ‘must’. It is just like when the President is off, the vice president does not automatically become the president of Nigeria. He remains the vice president until a letter is transmitted as such. That is what the constitution says.”
But the constitution states that in the absence of the President of the Senate, the deputy shall preside.
Section 53 of the constitution which spells out the role of the deputy President of the Senate states: “At any sitting of the National Assembly – in the case of the Senate, the President of the Senate shall preside, and in his absence the Deputy President shall preside.”
Ndume further declared that the Senate has within seven days to clear the ministerial nominees and urged Nigerians to be patient with Senators to do a thorough job.
Meanwhile, the planned political solution aimed at resolving the crisis in the leadership of the Senate might have crumbled as a result of alleged refusal of Ndume to resign.
It was learnt that the planned political solution, which was said to have been accepted by Saraki, the Presidency and the APC, was aimed at implementing the leadership structure preferred by the ruling APC in the Senate.
National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had on June 24 written the Senate President to propose the names of four Senators who were to assume leadership positions in the Senate.
Odigie-Oyegun’s letter had named Senator Ahmed Lawan (North-East) as Majority Leader; Prof. Sola Adeyeye (South-West) as Chief Whip; George Akume (North-Central) as Deputy Majority Leader and Abu Ibrahim (North-West) as Deputy Chief Whip. But Saraki went ahead to announce Ndume as Senate Leader, Bala Na’allah as Deputy Leader, Sola Adeyeye as Senate Chief Whip and Senator Francis Alimikhena as Deputy Majority Whip.
However, following increased political hostilities between the APC leadership and the Senate leadership, a committee headed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has been working on the planned political solution aimed at finding a middle ground for the Senate leadership and Saraki.
Dogara, who has been working with the party’s National Chairman and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, was said to have proposed “a clear out” of the current APC leadership in the senate and a replacement with those originally proposed by the APC. Only Senator Sola Adeyeye, the Chief Whip would retain his seat if the political solution option works out.
But sources disclosed yesterday that Ndume has rejected the offer that he should resign, while the others, including Na’Allah and Alimikhena, were said to have agreed to the offer if it would bring peace between the party and the Senate.
Ndume, who was said to have been invited to a meeting at the Presidential Villa on Monday night was said to have been told to accept the offer to resign so as not to keep delaying the peace deal.
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12 Comments
He who carries a stolen baby on his back cannot have peace. How can he preside?
Sharrap there, your likes are killing our nascent democracy, with terrorists, rogues governors, in APC fold in the ecehlons of governanace…, their time will be up very soon!!!
I did not insult you I only made my comment but your person speaks volume!
That one concern you!!! Please don’t patronize me, the senate president and deputy senate president were voted in , the whole world saw it, even by APC senators in the red chambers. APC should lick their wounds and learn from their mistakes and move on, you don’t force things down peoples throat! So your comment was wrong!!!There is no stealing here, correct yourself!! APC can impeach him, if they want, after all, they have majority and are clueless on what to do with the majority due to self serving interests. The point is, we should remove politics and self serving interest from institutions, that is the way it is done in other climes, if the senate president is not around, the deputy will preside!!! abi you no sabi that one, APC is killing our institutions, look at the mess in INEC now, after GEJ reformed it, and guys like your types are clapping!!! Nonsense!!!
II can see some people comments without facts and
speculation and that is one of the problems we have in the country. President
Buhari as clearly separated himself from the crisis at the national assembly. The crisis is between the party hierarchy and the national assembly leadership.
APC has a majority in the senate that allows them to nominate and elect a senate president and deputy from APC. Having more than one candidate contesting for the positions could easily split the votes of APC members and PDP could have easily nominated a candidate and win with their total votes. This has happened before when Tambuwal won the speaker election based on combine the votes from the opposition. The strategy was to have an internal election within the caucus to have a nominee and a single candidate to present. I believe what senator Saraki should have done is convince his own party caucus and sell his candidacy to them and let them decide if they trust his leadership qualities to lead them. Rep Dogara was able to that and he won a tight democratically conducted election against Rep Gbajabiamila. Senator Saraki has every right as a senator to contest for that position. I don’t like a situation where some party leadership will impose a candidate on others without an internal democracy which was the norm with the old ACN. APC actually did conduct an internal election among its members to have a strategy going into that election but the manner and the circumstances in which Senator Saraki emerged as the senate president to me shows that his loyalty is very suspicious. He doesn’t care about the APC as a party but only himself because it could have been worse if PDP had nominated someone to
contest against him. I was rooting for him to contest and I wanted him to win the election just not in the way he went about it. Politics is about calculated risk and strategy and APC had one going
into the election. I am sure with the level of support he had in the senate he would have won easily against any other nominee just like Rep Dogara did in the lower house. But the problem was
the election was conducted with majority of the APC circumstantially absent. It could have been worse because PDP members could have nominated one of their colleagues to contest against Saraki and he would have lost. He was lucky because PDP caucus never expected what happen or else they could have come to the chamber with their own strategy. But I guess their strategy all along was to vote for Senator Saraki if he was a candidate. Party discipline and loyalty comes first for every politician except in Nigeria. The only way to succed and climb the ladder within your party is
your commitment to the discipline and ideologies of the party. APC School of taught favors progressive policies and ideologies. In Nigeria Politician jumps from one party to another to realize a selfish ambition. It has never been about the party. That is why you will see people like Governor peter Obi switching from APGA to PDP because of ministerial appointment or Vice President Atiku in and out of the PDP whenever he thinks he has a shot at the presidency. You will recall that President Buhari separated himself from ACN and ANPP in 2011 to form the CPC because of differences in ideologies and imposition of candidate over internal democracy. And the coming together of different political parties to form the APC was born out of the strong beliefs
in the progressives ideologies and I strongly belief that true followers of late senator Ojukwu APGA should have been part of the coalitions that form the new APC. At the moment it’s still a bed of strange fellows but with time they will learn to respect one another and understand that the
party discipline and loyalty should be taken seriously. Internal democracy and not imposition of candidate should be only choice before members and monetary contributions and political positions should not determine who controls the party structures. A situation where the governor or the president automatically becomes the head of the party.
your words are insult to humanity. a stolen baby should not have peace, you insulted the senate president and all lovers of humanity. Apologise you nincompoop.
what makes it stolen. So, if APC and Buhari have a different candidate, that makes it stolen even when there was an election. Are we really in democracy, is it the kind of change you people were talking about?
Saraki’s mandate is not stolen he got it not fair but square. he out played his party. People should stop using the word stolen for his mandate because it isn’t a stolen one.
Nope Saraki’s Senate Presidency is not a stolen mandate, he enjoys the majority support of his colleagues and he got the SP in compliance with the constitution. Just that he defy his party’s directives orally and written and if my guess is right the party may likely be behind his ordeal. (Volounti non fit injuria) You cannot assume a risk and come back to complain. Let him face his music and stop heating the politics he knows he would be punished somehow.
You don’t jump into the river during winter and be crying of cold is only fools who would sympathize with such person.
D pickin wey say im mama no go sleep, im no go sleep. So also, the papa wey say im son no go be, im no go be. Shikena! So, Buhari will never have sleep so long as he does not want Saraki be. Nigerians must begin to hold Buhari and his APC responsible for his executive lawlessness, rascality and evil machinations aimed at truncating our nascent democracy – all for his selfish, sectional interests. Buhari must respect the independence of the senate and desist from the muscling of the senate. Buhari must stop desecrating the sanctity of our democracy. Buhari has continually shown that he is a reluctant democrat and therefore remains a threat to our democracy if he does not retrace his steps. None of his actions has so far be done in the interest of Nigerians, not for any altruistic reasons – it’s all for their selfish interests. So, if the Senate decides to impeach Buhari today he would send Buratai, Daura, Olonishakin, Ibok-Ette after them??????? That is not democracy – let the Senate leadership be and Buhari should mind his business of governance. The honeymoon will soon be over, and 150 days of the life of this government is almost gone; yet nothing to show. THIS IS NOT THE CHANGE WE ASKED FOR; PLS BUHARI AND APC DO NOT TAKE NIGERIANS FOR A RIDE. THIS DECEIT IS BECOMING TOO DISINGENOUS.
Would you shut that your mouth Ido Idoje, people who voted for PMB are talking you are also talking, to say “this is not the change we asked for” can not come from you because you did not vote for him, if you did not vote for him then you never asked for change. Those that can say this is not the change we asked for are the people who voted for him not a maggot like you.
APC should should allow Nigerians to enjoy a true change , and not the type where they will have chance to steal our money again.All the members in the upper legislative chamber are qualified to handle any position there-in . They all won election in their constituencies. why the discrimination against any of the members. Remember, that saraki was one of the first set of Governors to leave PDP for APC then the party no longer want them to be relevant in the system again after using them to win Election. If APC want a lasting peace in the party they should leave Saraki and his group to finish their therm . Forming a new party will not help Tunubu and co, because it will be exercise in futility since they are not going to another planet or another country to bring members and all amount to greed .No one can eat his cake and have it any more!
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