National Assembly Resumes Tuesday Amidst Tension

Agency ReporterOctober 8, 2018

0 2 minutes read

The National Assembly would Tuesday resume plenary amidst tension, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) plots to take over leadership.

Recall that before the National Assembly went on break about eleven weeks ago, there were attempts by the APC to impeach the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki after he defected to the PDP.

The subsequent defection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to the PDP just like Saraki, would this week add tension to the already charged atmosphere as the APC lawmakers were already threatening brimstone and fire on the excuse that the opposition party cannot control the National Assembly.

While the two presiding officers in the Senate, Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu belong to the PDP with just 48 senators out of 109, the number one presiding officer in the House, Dogara, also belongs to PDP in a House with about 196 APC members out of the available 360 seats.

It would be recalled that Saraki and Dogara defected from APC to PDP during the recess at different times on account of irreconcilable differences they have with the party operatives at different levels.

Also recall that the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, has not hid his anger over Saraki controlling the National Assembly, vowing that he would remove him.

The plans of the ruling party to take action against the leadership of Saraki, was revealed on Saturday by the leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan, who declared that minority will not be allowed to rule over the majority at both chambers of the National Assembly on resumption on Tuesday.

He had said, “I want Nigerians to know 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 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.

“I want to assure everyone here that 2019 is going to be a walkover for Mr. President, by the grace of God. It will see APC winning more than 24 states.

“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.”