THE FULL STORY- Senate presidency: Saraki’s group challenges Lawan to open contest

Senators of the Like Minds Group, the group of senators loyal to Senator Bukola Saraki in the race for senate presidency said on Friday that the All Progressives Congress (APC) must live by the change it preached by ensuring that the next Senate president emerged through democratic means. The group, in a statement signed by two of its members, Senators Dino Melaye and Ahmed Sani Yerima, said that their group has the number to make Saraki Senate president. The statement challenged the group loyal to Senator Ahmed Lawan to produce the signatures of its followers and send the same to the national chairman of the APC just like the Like Minds had done. It said that the controversy over the numbers of senators controlled by each group was needless, adding that the Unity Forum should just publish its own support base to clear the air. The statement reads in part: “In view of the controversy on the numbers of the senators supporting Senators Bukola Saraki and Ahmed Lawan for the Senate presidency of the 8th Senate, we challenge them in the same manner to publicly exhibit the names and signatories they claim that consist of their support in the senate. “We equally urge them to consolidate it further by submitting the names of the senators that have passed a resolution endorsing Ahmed Lawan as the next Senate president as we, the senators of the Like Minds did when we submitted the names and signatures of the 34 senators endorsing Senator Saraki on May 24, 2015 as the next senate president. “Recall that on Tuesday this week, they promised to release to the public and indeed the press corps of the National Assembly, the names and signatures of 40 senators purportedly supporting Ahmed Lawan and George Akume, but as at today, the number has changed to 35 and yet they cannot explain to the public the reason for the delay and change of numbers from 40 to 35 “We challenge them to publicly do same by publishing the list and forward same to the national chairman of our great party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. “As democracy continues to be game of numbers, Senator Bukola Saraki is the president of the 8th Senate. “On two occasions, APC as the ruling political party has called for due internal democracy through primary elections, on the same two occasions, they have evaded these primary elections to determine the Senate president of the 8th Senate. “Their latest presentation to our national chairman, that ranking should be a criterion for the selection of the next Senate president is fool hardy to suggest because if Ahmed Lawan is the most ranking senator where then was he when George Akume was selected the minority leader of the Senate? “If ranking is the way to go, it should be across party line as Senator David Mark is the most ranking senator so far among the senators of the 8th Senate. The inconsistency that they have displayed, only suggests to the fact that they do not have the numbers as they claim. “Recall also that Senator Ken Nnamani became the Senate president, despite the fact that he was not a ranking senator. Ditto, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and others. George Akume, when he contested with David Mark (Sixth Senate) in 2007, was not a ranking senator when he became the Senate minority leader. “Senators must be allowed to choose their own leaders as impositions will only bring the ‘Banana Peel’ back to the Senate. We should adhere to the rules of the Senate in choosing the next Senate president. In so doing, experience, acceptability and merit should be of prime importance. “Imposition, harassment, intimidation and name dropping as well as threat will not produce the Senate president of the 8th Senate. “We preach change, we must act change. Our resolve is total and our commitment is unshaken.” Meanwhile, forces loyal to the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu and Senator Saraki are engaged in last- ditch battle for the position of the president of the Senate in the eighth National Assembly. There have been intense lobbies for signatures of senators since Thursday. It was gathered that some last minute efforts by the Tinubu and Saraki camps to sway senators have failed to get many of them to shift grounds, forcing a postponement of the meeting the party originally scheduled for June 4. It was gathered that the meeting now rescheduled for June 6 (today) may not achieve much if the leaders fail to keep an open mind. A source said that the party can only conduct primaries between the front-runners if it wants to ensure a democratic process today. “Anything to the contrary will not yield the desired result for the party. The campaigns have gone far,” a source said. Following the termination of the life of the seventh Senate on Thursday, attention has shifted to the eighth National Assembly which will be inaugurated on Tuesday. Sources close to the National Assembly confirmed that the camps of Tinubu and Saraki had combed the government houses of most of the states in the last few days to assure themselves of the figures needed to win the slot. A survey conducted during the week had put Saraki at a slight edge with 56 lawmakers over Senator Ahmad Lawan with 52. Lawan is being pushed by the Tinubu camp. Two weeks ago, the Like Minds Senators loyal to Saraki wrote to the national chairman of the APC indicating the preference of 34 of them for Saraki as Senate president. Their number is 35 with the inclusion of Saraki himself. The letter, endorsed on behalf of the senators by senator-elect, Dino Melaye, has an attachment of the list of the pro-Saraki senators and their signatures. Melaye said that the Like Minds senators were backing Saraki because they felt he was the right choice and a competent hand to head the next Senate. But on Thursday, the Unity Forum loyal to Lawan also issued a statement indicating that they now had 35 senators backing Lawan. The group said it had set criteria for the next Senate president, which the senators in its fold had vowed to adhere to. The Unity Forum’s letter to the APC was signed by Senators Barnabas Gemade, Abu Ibrahim, Olusola Adeyeye, Abdullahi Adamu and Bukar Abba Ibrahim. Feelers indicate that a number of governors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the APC have taken positions in the Senate presidency race, with a number of South-East and South-South governors said to have queued behind Saraki. Saraki is also said to be having a good showing in parts of the North-Central and North-West. Lawan is, however, said to have been adopted by governors from the South-West, except Ekiti and Ondo states, North-East and North-West. The Unity Forum senators of Senator Lawan said in the letter they sent to Chief John Odigie- Oyegun on Thursday that, “Senator Ahmed Lawan shall be the highest ranking APC senator and George Akume the second highest ranking APC senator in the eighth National Assembly. This is so as Lawan has spent 16 years in the National Assembly; eight years at the House of Representatives and another eight in the Senate. Akume has so far spent eight years in the Senate. “The next behind the duo in terms of ranking who is also in the contest for the Senate Presidency is Senator Saraki, who has spent only four years in the Senate. Thus, Senator Lawan is the most qualified to be the Senate president while Senator Akume is the most qualified to be the Deputy Senate president of the eighth Assembly in accordance with Rule 3 Order (2) of the Extant Senate Standing Orders which states as follows: “Nomination of Senators to serve as Presiding Officers and appointments of Principal Officers and other Officers of the Senate or on any Parliamentary delegations shall be in accordance with the ranking of Senators. In determining ranking, the following order shall apply: (i) Senators retiring based on number of times re-elected; (ii) Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives; and (iii) Senators elected as Senators for the first time.” They further wrote: “Since the North-West zone, which gave the APC the highest votes in the 2015 general election, is represented by the president in this government and the South-West, which gave the party the second highest votes in the same election is represented by the vice- president in this same government, then the North-East zone, which gave the party the third highest votes in the election should, for the sake of equity, be allowed to produce the Senate president and the North-Central Zone, which gave the APC the fourth highest votes in that election, should be allowed to produce the Deputy Senate president.” “There were three identified voting blocs that ensured the victory of the APC in the 2015 elections: The Hausa-Fulani bloc, the Yoruba bloc and the Northern minorities bloc. The Hausa- Fulani bloc is represented by the President in this government. The Yoruba bloc is represented by the vice-president. It has, therefore, become appropriate and equitable that the Northern minorities’ bloc be given the positions of the Senate president and the Deputy Senate president to be occupied by Senators Lawan and Akume, respectively who are of Northern minorities.” “That Ahmad Lawan as Senate president will give our compatriots in the North-East zone a sense of full integration into the heterogenous Nigerian polity. “That the duo of Senator Ahmad Lawan and Senator George Akume maintain clean records throughout their stint in the Public Service. This attribute will put them on high moral pedestal to lead the 8th Senate to bring about a corrupt-free Nigeria.” A member of the Like Minds Senators said in a chat on Thursday that the group was not about Saraki at the start. He said that some of the senators got together in the hope of shaping things in the next Senate and agreed among themselves that whichever area the Senate presidency seat was zoned, they would ensure the emergence of their preferred candidate. He said: “We grouped together talking about the shape of things in the next Senate. Somehow, we heard that the seat had been zoned by our party to the North-Central and Saraki happens to be our member from that zone. So, we decided to back him.” Saraki, who has also been selling his own candidature, is believed to have a wider reach among PDP senators, many of whom are said to have rejected alleged plot by the APC leaders to impose a candidate on the Senate. He spoke of his plan for a new Senate in an interview: “I think one of the things I have observed in looking at all our areas of responsibility is largely the fact that many Nigerians wonder what we do here. “‘What happens in the National Assembly?’ Or, to put it another way, ‘I don’t see what they add to my life.’ There is no connection between the National Assembly and the Nigerian people and that is why they say, ‘they are just there, I don’t even see what they do there.’ “We hope the eighth chamber under one’s leadership will begin to bring a closer relationship, a better connection between the Nigerian people and the Senate in the sense that we see that some of the laws that we pass are laws that will have impact on the lives of our people. “Secondly, in the area of representation, a lot of us also must improve on being able to connect, interact with people we represent. There must be openness and transparency in even what we do at the Senate. Some of the things that we do, we must ensure that there is accountability. Some of our responsibilities are in the area of oversight. We really have to improve on that. No matter what we say, some of the issues that we have seen, things that happened in the last few years, we cannot but take responsibility that there has been poor oversight and that is an area that we must improve on. Whether we are talking about the issue of Boko Haram, the issue of security, we must improve on our oversight. “This is an area of priority for us. We must also be able to make sacrifices too that are necessary. We must be able to have a legislative agenda that also works closely with what Mr President’s agenda is and there are issues of revenue, of the budget, we have to look at the budget process and ensure that the way it is done can impact Nigerians. “We must also improve the capacity of the senators because I believe that there is the need for a lot of research, there is need for a lot of capacity building and information gathering. Also, in our interaction with the civil society and a lot of people out there who can provide the technical support if there is need for that. There are some bills that I believe are priorities. I think one of the areas is the delivery of justice. It is a key area of all the things we talk about, whether we are talking about security or anti-corruption. We need to look at the electoral reform because that will strengthen our democracy. These are bills that I believe are key. “We need to prioritise a lot of these bills and improve the processes. I was giving an example the other day where, you know, we run a bicameral legislature, where one chamber passes a bill and waits sometimes for another one year, two years, for the other chamber to pass it. We need to improve on the relationship between the two chambers to ensure efficiency. “Some of our processes too, our rules and proceedings, will have to be reviewed to make them more efficient so we see how we can deliver. So, these are the things that I feel we need to do to make our Senate more effective, to make it more productive, to make it have its own benchmarks on deliverable, to be able to say this is what we promised. “We must be able to have certain things that we promised the Nigerian people with timelines that we can say this is what we intend to do and be able to deliver them and bring respectability back to the Senate, that people will be able to be proud to say, ‘yes, these are our senators.’”