Frontline Senate Presidential aspirant Ahmed Lawan said yesterday that if elected, he will work to build on the growing stability in the upper chamber.
Lawan also said the independence of the Senate will not be compromised at any time.
The Senate Presidential hopeful spoke while unveiling his legislative agenda to members of Senate Press Corps in Abuja.
Lawan, who is also chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, said he will ensure harmonious relationship with the Executive.
He harped on the necessity for consensus between APC majority and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators to ensure its smooth-running.
At the event, Leader of the Senate Unity Forum, Senator Barnabas Gemade, said members of the forum are working to actualise the Senate Presidency of Lawan with Senator George Akume as the Deputy Senate President.
Gemade said members of the forum will next week unveil 40 All Progressives Congress (APC) senators, who are solidly behind Lawan in his bid to clinch the Senate Presidency.
Lawan, while unveiling his agenda, said:“The question on my legislative agenda is very fundamental question.
“The Senate everywhere in the world is known to be the stabilising chamber in any democracy and thank God that I have been in the Senate for the last eight years after a sojourn of eight years in the House of Representatives.
“I believe that this time the Eighth Senate should be a Senate where independence of the legislature will exist and partnership and cooperation with the executive will be enhanced.
“We have had about eight years of stability in the Senate and therefore it is something that I will like to build on.
“I talked about the independence of the legislature, until we are able to be independent of the executive, we cannot openly position ourselves to undertake our responsibilities and discharge our mandate.
“There is need for us to be always independent in the Eigth Senate and you will agree with me that the Eigth Senate is unlike any previous Senate in the history of Nigeria.
“This is because you have 59 APC senatorsc – the party in government – and 49 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators in opposition.
“The gap is narrow and that calls for consensus-building and cooperation and partnership between and among senators for anything meaningful to be achieved by the Senate.
“So, I intend to always build consensus between the two sides. I also believe that we must cooperate with the Executive Arm of Government. Until there is cooperation between us based on mutual respect and understanding, we may not achieve anything.
“I recall when I was a member of the House of Representatives, the first tenure – 1999 to 2003 – there was so much power tussle and misunderstanding between the legislature then and the executive arm of government and nothing was achieved.
“Nigerians were worse off, the legislature was worse off and the Executive was worse off. We don’t want to see a repeat.
“But I believe that the Senate and indeed the National Assembly must never be the rubber stamp. Mutual respect will be what we will be driving to ensure that we have that between us and the executive arm of government.”
He added: “By the way, we are coming at a time when Nigerians have decidedly voted for positive change and Nigerians deserve that change to be practicalised in very positive ways.
“That is to say we must work together with the executive arm of government to deliver services to the citizens of Nigeria.
“I also think the level of corruption is intolerable. We will join Mr. President-elect to fight corruption and all corrupt tendencies.
“We can do that through legislation – whether new bills or laws or amendment of existing laws to make sure that whatever resources we are able to garner as a country and budget for provision of services to Nigerians are utilised for those purposes, rather than ending in private pockets.
“To that extent, the Senate and indeed the National Assembly, will be a partner and I believe that will be a worthy partnership.
“We have over 660 parastatals of the Federal Government at the moment. Some have been existing since 1960 and they have not been doing anything. “Some duplicate their roles. Our resource base is declining. We need to widen it. We need to capture more and more resources and we have to ensure that we block all leakages – corrupt tendencies whether they are corruption or stealing is depriving the ordinary man of what he should ordinarily have.
“So, we need to ensure that whatever little resources Nigeria is able to have that the bulk of it is used for the common good and we can do that effectively with the executive arm of government.”
No comments:
Post a Comment