Ali Ndume, senator representing
Borno south, has asked Senate President Bukola Saraki to reconvene plenary.
The senator frowned at the
closure of the senate, saying there are “critical matters of urgent national
importance” to be discussed by the lawmakers.
Ndume said this when he featured
on Politics Today, a Channels Television show, on Wednesday.
“The closure of the national assembly
that day was unbelievable. I was shocked by the way he acted,” he said.
“The senate is not Saraki, Saraki
is just a member of the senate and the presiding officer that anybody can be.
So, for him to have just shut down the national assembly because of personal
issues is very unfortunate and uncalled for especially when you have very
important matters before the senate.
“We have five different critical
items. We have the budget of the FCT before the senate which has not been
approved.
“We have the virement and
supplementary budget for INEC which is necessary in order to conduct the 2019
elections and then we have the appointment and the confirmation of ICPC
members, that of FERMA is lying there, that of judicial commission is there and
in fact, the budget of 64 government agencies is before the senate. Approval
for the funding, external borrowing to fund the 2018 budget which has already
been approved is before the senate.”
APC CRISIS ‘NOT WELL MANAGED’
Ndume said the crisis rocking the
ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was not managed well when it started to
brew.
Senate President Bukola Saraki,
three governors and several lawmakers from both chambers of the national
assembly have left the APC for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ndume said although the
defections won’t affect President Muhamadu Buhari’s reelection chances in 2019,
the party ought to have worked harder to keep its members.
“I want to equally say that
that’s not to say the people who left have been treated fairly because I know
some of my colleagues have issues that would have been handled better,” he
said.
“Even Saraki’s case could have
been handled better ab initio, because I was part of the like-minded team to
the emergence. I think the initial problem wasn’t managed well by the party.”
Ndume said defection is not a big
issue but the party should be concerned when it loses people.
“If you look at the analysis of
those that left, as the senate president said, he didn’t leave, he said he was
pushed out, and Bolaji who recently announced his defection, too, didn’t say he
left but was pushed out and his job is being compromised,” the senator said.
Wishing Saraki and other
defectors well, Ndume said the PDP which they are returning to is a dying
party.
“Everybody knows that PDP is a
dying party. In fact, the party is a bad brand and that’s why I heard they are
going into rebranding, that they want to even change the name after apologising
to Nigerians,” he said.
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