By Raphael Ekpang
Ahead of the June 13, resumption date for the 10th National Assembly, the former Senate leader in the 9th assembly, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, CON has called on his colleagues, Senators-elect to unite in selecting their leadership.He made the call on Wednesday in a chat with journalists in Abuja
Senator Abdullahi, who is representing Kebbi North Senatorial District in the Senate said, they (Senators) must do everything within their powers to remain united in order for the executive to function optimally.
Senator Abdullahi, noted that the Senate is a critical institution in deepening democracy in Nigeria, therefore, the stability of the institution is an advantage to the country.
He pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his party All Progressive Congress (APC) to allow the law makers to select their own leaders by themselves, adding that, that is the only way they would be united and work to complement the executive in building a new Nigeria.
He said, “The most important thing really is for us to select a leadership that can unite the Senate. The Senate itself has to be united because if the institution is not united, public policy is possibly going to collapse. Because the Senate is the institution that partners most with the executive arm of government and House of Representatives also, because you can’t really pass the budget without the House of Reps . But key presidential appointment of key institutions and key issues of policy, is the prerogative of the Senate.
” Now If anybody toys with the Senate and allows some scheming to happen within the Senate, the executive cannot perform optimally. So the important thing is for us to look at the Senate and allow the Senate as an institution to be stable, and the only way it can be stable is to allow members of the Senate, irrespective of their political parties to select the leadership of their choice,” he said.
On whether opposition parties are eyeing the position of the Senate President and deputy, Senator Abdullahi said, “For us on opposition parties, we are not going to begrudge the APC from taking over the leadership because if we participate in the leadership, it means that any fault of the party we are going to take share of it. That is what.happened in the 8th Senate. The PDP could not speak because they had the Deputy Senate president.
“We don’t want any, let them take whatever position meant for majority party, but what we want is that the executive should be bi-partisanship in everything that happen on our resumption date, and the only way the president or APC can be bipartisanship is if they respect the individual members of the Senate irrespective of which party they belong. You have to treat Senators of the Federal Republic like the Senators of the Federal Republic. Make sure there is inclusively and leadership that is respected and also respect all the members of the Senate.
“I think the executive arm of government should be very weary of any form of imposition because impositions don’t work. The moment you divide Senators across party lines, you are going to have a very rough day,” he concluded.On subsidy removal, the former Senate leader he commended the position of the President, adding that subsidy not not sustainable.
According to him, “Not only that it’s not sustainable but the way in which it’s administered, it doesn’t reach those people who are expected to benefit from it. So since it doesn’t do so, why don’t you capture the resources like he said. Capture the resources that are wasted or used on subsidy and spent it on other issues like health, education and even agriculture so that you can establish a foundation for food security.”
