The temporarily suspended battle for the leadership of the Nigerian Senate will resume tomorrow when the Lawmakers resume from their long recess. The Federal lawmakers had been on recess since July 24. Clearly, the battle would be between the Senators elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC who claim to be in the majority and Peoples Democratic Party Senators battling to retain Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President.
The tension in the Senate intensified when Saraki formally announced his defection from the APC to the PDP. He had accused the APC of persecution and witch-hunt, absence of internal democracy as well as failure of the government to deliver on the change agenda. Following his defection, APC Senators led by Ahmed Lawan called for his resignation, arguing that his new party is in the minority and thus should not lead the APC majority in the Red Chamber.
Contrary to Lawan's position, the PDP has continued to insist that it is in the majority. They have frowned at various alleged attempts by the APC to force Saraki's impeachment, in breach of extant laws.
The indication of renewed tension surfaced at the APC Presidential Convention, held at the Eagle Square, in Abuja, at the weekend when LAWAN, while delivering his speech warned that the Senate would force through a lot of things upon resumption on Tuesday.
“I want to also add that the number of senators of APC in the Senate remains the largest. I want to call the attention of everyone here to the fact that democracy, as defined by people, remains a government of the majority, where minority will always have their say.
“Those who cannot remember that there was a time in this country when nine was greater than 16, I want to remind them that we have come to that point again. Now, we have our chamber dominated and occupied by minority leaders. They remain minority leaders occupying our positions. Those who refuse to follow the part of honour and integrity by exiting; we will send them out with ignominy.
“We will have a national assembly where vast majority of senators will be from the APC and in the House of Representatives. We want to have a National Assembly that will, at all times, work with Mr. President, day and night, to deliver to Nigerians what we have lost over the years.
“The leadership of the National Assembly has shown to us that they are not prepared to be loyal to this administration. On Tuesday, we will be going back to the National Assembly when our recess is over. We intend to force through a lot of things and pass that budget for INEC and the security agencies for the 2019 election.
“If we cannot convince them, we intend to force through the foreign plan for this administration. Some people have taken our mandate and ran away with it. We intend to fight, defend and promote the interest of this party at all cost,” he assured.
