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Tag: Senate Leader

  • N5.5bn vehicles: Outcry unnecessary, insult to National Assembly – Senate Leader

    N5.5bn vehicles: Outcry unnecessary, insult to National Assembly – Senate Leader

    The Ninth Senate has dismissed the public outcry over the N5.5 billion allocated for the purchase of vehicles for lawmakers in the 2019 budget, regarding it as an “insult”.

    The Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, said it is highly insulting that some public commentators are criticising and kicking against the allocation for the purchase of the vehicles which was part of the N125 billion appropriation of the National Assembly.

    “To say that a senator of the Federal Republic cannot ride a jeep in Nigeria is an insult.”, Abdullahi said during an interview with journalists in his office at the National Assembly.

    Criticism followed the plan by the Ninth National Assembly to purchase Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for each of the 469 federal lawmakers at a total cost amounting to N5.5 billion.

    This move has resulted in litigation by some concerned citizens and social crusaders led by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

    According to Senator Abdullahi, there is nothing for anybody to cry over as far as the plan is concerned because a serving senator and members of the House of Representatives deserve to have official vehicles in the mode of a functional utility vehicle or Jeep.

    “The N5.5 billion is from the National Assembly funds and not money being sought from any other source. Besides, the scheme as it has always been with previous assemblies, is a monetised one, requiring each of the lawmakers to pay back the cost of whatever vehicle is given to them.

    “The outcry over it is very unnecessary and insulting to the institution of the National Assembly and status of the federal lawmakers. When I was a permanent secretary, I know what ministers get; we cannot even compare ourselves with ministers because we are higher than the ministers.” He said.

    Enforcing his stance, he said, “Go and tell the people that the work that we do, is more than the work of ministers and as representatives of the people, the money we spend on daily basis on all forms of indigent people, far outweighs whatever they as ministers or executive officers spend.”

    He added that both chambers of the National Assembly would be willing to engage any group of people in the polity on its operations and spending in line with the principles of accountability and transparency the National Assembly represented.

    “Each of the ministers move in convoy of three to four utility vehicles without anybody raising any eyebrow while some people who either as a result of ignorance or mischief, always cry to high heavens anytime the management of the National Assembly wants to buy just one utility vehicle for a lawmaker on the template of monetisation,” he stated.

    Sen. Abdullahi then commended the executive on the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), the basis upon which the 2020 budget proposals will be presented next month by President Muhammadu Buhari in moving the yearly budgetary cycle from May/ June as it is presently to January to December every year

  • Defections: Why we suspended impeachment moves against Saraki, Ekweremadu – Senate Leader

    The Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, on Friday gave indication that peace has returned to the National Assembly and no need to impeach Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
    Prior to the reconvening of the National Assembly on Tuesday, Lawan had declared at the All Progressives Congress (APC) Convention at the Eagle Square on Saturday night that APC will not allow leadership of the National Assembly run away with its mandate.
    While the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has been of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the Senate President, Bukola Saraki had recently defected from the APC to the PDP.
    But speaking on the crisis with State House correspondents on Friday at the Presidential Villa, Lawan said “I don’t know what informed your view to anticipate crisis but let me tell you that NASS will continue to remain focus on national issues, we must be patriotic, nationalistic, we must put national interest above individual, parochial or partisan interest.
    “We definitely have to bury our hatchets for us to work for Nigeria and Nigerians perhaps that might have informed the disappointment of many people that there will be crisis in the National Assembly.
    “Let me also say that disagreements are usual, in fact they are very practical components of any parliament, when you have 2 to 3 parties or even within parties you will have views that may differ.
    “It is traditional, it is usual for us to disagree maybe this disagreements may crop up and some other issues but for now our focus is on national interest.” he said
    Asked if the idea of impeachment has been dropped, he said “The National Assembly is a Nigerian parliament and therefore the best thing to do is to ensure that Nigerians gets a good deal and for now the good deal is for Nigeria to have all those pending request of Mr President approved by the National Assembly.
    “I think the national interest for now override any other interest.” he said
    Speaking further on the resumption day, he said “Well you could see from day one, day one Tuesday was not an eventful day because the National Assembly lost a member, a member from Kwara. So traditionally, we normally don’t work on such a day when the death will be officially announced.
    “But Wednesday and Thursday witnessed the focus and concentration of members of the National Assembly on the request of Mr President for the funding of INEC for elections to be conducted in 2019 and we passed in the Senate and the House did also.
    “We passed the request of Mr President for N189 billion for INEC activities for 2019.On Thursday the committee on appropriation invited the head of the security agencies to come and defend the request that Mr President made on their behalf for funding of their supervisory and oversight roles during the elections in 2019.
    “We also had the referral of the request of Mr President approval for foreign loan component of the 2018 appropriation and that is about 2.78 billion dollars eurobond. We have gone full blast consciously, purposely to ensure that Mr President gets what’s he request, we lost time because some of the issues were requested for before we went on our recess.
    “But we have also in the Senate passed confirmations of the CBN deputy governor, ICPC governing body and we are determined to continue to do this throughout this period.
    “Our intention is to ensure that Mr President doesn’t lack from inactivity of the NASS that whatever he requests, the fundamentals aspects especially will be attended to, this is our determination both as APC senators infact as senate and National Assembly.” he added

  • Osinbajo meets Senate Leader, Lawan inside Aso Rock

    The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday met behind closed doors with the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The meeting came at a time the ruling All Progressives Congress and some senators elected on its platform are insisting that the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, must vacate his seat having defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.

    It also came as the Presidency continued to appeal to the National Assembly to cut short its ongoing vacation in order to attend to the budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission and other issues of national importance currently before the federal lawmakers.

    Lawan was accompanied to the meeting by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang.

    The meeting was still ongoing at the time of filing this report.

     

    Details later…

  • Defected lawmakers will return soon – Senate leader

    …insists APC still in majority

    Sen. Ahmed Lawan, Senate Majority Leader has said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership will work to ensure the return of its Senators that defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    He stated this while speaking with newsmen after a closed- door meeting with Mr Adams Oshiomhole, the APC National Chairman on Tuesday in Abuja.

    Lawan added that the APC cacus in the Senate would work with the party’s leadership to ensure that the defected senators return to its fold.

    The President of Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki had earlier, announced the defection of 15 APC Senators to the PDP and other political parties.

    “We came to brief the party’s leadership about what happened today at the Senate,” the Senate Majority Leader said.

    He added that they would try to explain to the party’s senators who defected and give them the comfort they required while assuring them that the APC was the best to work with.

    This, he said, was especially so because the party had a President who had remained focused and had done so much with little resources to improve the lots of Nigerians.

    “He is busy providing infrastructure in this country, infact, Nigeria is today, a construction site and I believe that every Nigerian should support this type of President.

    “At the end of the day, we are hoping that our colleagues who have left us will come back to this party to continue in the nation building process,”the Senator said.

    He further said that the APC reconciliation was a continuous process,adding that it would however, take some time to reconcile all those who were aggrieved within the party.

    Lawan maintained that there was no alternative to reconciliation and consultation,stressing that the party’s leadership would get back its members.

    According to him, the PDP has no future because it mis-ruled Nigeria and embezzled its resources.

    “I will be surprised if anyone wants to associate with this kind of party,our colleagues are clean people and should have nothing to do with PDP at all.

    He added that in spite of the defection of 15 APC to opposition parties, his position as Senate Majority Leader was not in contention.

    “If you look at our senate rules, the party with the majority of seats provides the majority leader, you do not need a mathematician to tell you that we are in the majority,but that is not the issue.

    “It is not about the office of the majority leader, but for our colleagues working together and facing the same direction as progressives to make Nigeria better.

    “It is about giving the president the support he requires and for the party to continue to provide the kind of leadership we need, that is what we are looking for, “he said.

    He added that though the APC had lost some of its colleagues to the PDP and to other political parties,it still retain the position of the number one party.

    “Presently, we have 53 Senators, PDP has 49, African Democratic Congress (ADC) has three, APGA has two and we have two vacancies resulting from the loss of our colleagues in Kastina and Bauchi.

    “Those were APC seats, very safe seats. On August 11 a by-election will be held and by the grace of God APC will claim the seats and the majority of the APC will increase and improve,” he said.

     

  • NASS 2018 Budget will be made public – Senate Leader

    The Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, on Wednesday said the 2018 Budget of the National Assembly would be made public.

    Lawan said this while briefing newsmen journalists on the objectives of the “Open NASS’’ initiative designed to increase public access to the operations of the national assembly.

    Lawan heads the Special Committee set up to organise “Open Week Event’’ which is scheduled from June 25 to June 29 at the National Assembly Complex.

    He described the initiative as an evolving one, adopted by parliaments all over the world.

    “Increasingly, governments around the world are promoting initiatives in transparency‎.

    “Governments that are open and transparent are more accountable to their citizens and are less likely to be corrupt.

    “Openness generates trust in government and also paves the way for meaningful participation by citizens and more informed and better policies.

    “Around the world, an increasing number of parliaments are being more proactive in the provision of information.
    “This has become easier with the proliferation of the internet and access to Information Communication Technology (ICT).

    “Many parliaments are now uploading significant‎ documents such as daily order papers, draft laws and committee reports for distribution.

    “It is against this background that the National Assembly has initiated the Open Week to open the National Assembly to the public,’’ he said.

    Lawan emphasised that the event would broaden public understanding of legislative functions and processes and engender interactions between legislators and key stakeholders.

    “Series of activities during the `Open Week’ will include interactive sessions with various interest groups, question and answer sessions.

    “It also includes exhibitions and tours, planned over a four-day period to raise awareness on legislative initiative and activities,’’ Mr Lawan said.

    He said that the interactive sessions would feature members of the executive arm of government on the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and the Judiciary on pre- and post-elections adjudication.

    “Others are constitutional separation of powers, a session with state assemblies and a session with trade unions ‎on economic growth and industrial relations.

    “Also, there will be sessions with traditional rulers and pressure groups, civil society organisations on accountability and service delivery in governance as well as sessions with women, youth, and student bodies.

    “The exercise will feature daily exhibitions for National Assembly Committees to display their outputs and interface with stakeholders via cluster units to be created from both chambers for ease of access.

    “The benefits of the Open Week are numerous and have direct bearing on democratic governance in Nigeria.

    “Through the Open Week, the National Assembly is fostering public participation in the democratic process.

    “Giving the public access to legislative information, activities and policies are substantial steps towards empowering them to take part in political dialogue and decision-making processes.

    “Allowing public access to the legislature allows stakeholders to scrutinise our actions as an institution, such public engagement can lead to greater trust in government.

    “We have nothing to hide; being able to access this information significantly reduces suspicion and generates trust,’’ the lawmaker said.

  • Lawan’s emergence as Senate leader settles old rifts in our party – APC

     

    The All Progressives Congress, APC has said it welcomed Senate’s decision on the change of its leadership saying the removal of Ali Ndume and subsequent emergence of Ahmed Lawan has put to rest several issues surrounding the senate leadership in 2015.

    APC national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement, called the development a concrete expression of faith by the APC Senate Caucus in efforts to resolve the lingering issues that trailed the election of Senate leadership.

    “We believe this is a major step forward in our efforts to reunite the various interest groups in that Senate election, thereby presenting a common legislative front for our great party,” he said.

    “We are particularly delighted that the consultations that were initiated towards the end of 2015 between the party caucuses in the National Assembly and the party executives as well as other leading stakeholders of our party has yielded these results and the Senate has demonstrated its willingness to finally submit to the will of the party in this regard.

    “With this development therefore, we are confident that the issues arising from the elections in the Senate in 2015 have been put to rest”, he added.

    APC recalled that the party leadership had resolved that Senator Lawan be compensated with the position of the Senate Leader soon after the issue of election in the Senate occurred.

    He said the directive was not fully complied with at the time, but expressed happiness to see the change effected, stressing that it represents a significant progress in efforts to build a strong and united party.

    APC congratulated Senator Lawan on his election and expresses hope that he would use his vast experience and knowledge to enhance legislative works and its agenda of change.

    APC also assured Nigerians that it would continue to work under the leadership and guidance of President Muhammadu Buhari to resolve any other pending issues that might have affected the party at different levels.

    The ruling party also thanked Senator Ndume for his service and sacrifice to the party, which, it added, would not be forgotten.

     

  • BREAKING: Ndume removed as Senate Majority Leader, Lawal takes over

    The in-house crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may have taken another turn as the party caucus in the Senate has removed the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume (Borno South).

    In a letter which was transmitted to the Senate on Tuesday, the APC caucus forwarded the name of Senator Ahmed Lawal (Yobe North) as the new Senate Leader.

    The APC caucus also said the decision was arrived at during the party’s caucus’ meeting of Monday, 9th January, 2017.

    As at the time of filing this report, the erstwhile Senate Leader, Ali Ndume is briefing the Press Corp of the Senate.