Lawan: Tagging Legislature Rubber Stamp Laughable

Lawan: Tagging Legislature Rubber Stamp Laughable
“Senate will ensure Buhari succeeds, says Omo-Agege
By Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Senate President Ahmad Lawan has described insinuations that the legislative arm would be a rubber stamp to the Executive as sentimental and laughable.
This is just as Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, assured that the upper legislative chamber will ensure President Muhammadu Buhari succeeds in his second term.
Lawan who spoke while playing host to  Women Parliamentarians, led by Senator Joy Emordi in his office noted that, believing in President Buhari’s vision and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his personality should not be misconstrued to mean that he is not independent minded.
According to him, “during my campaign, I was called a potential rubber stamp Senate President to the executive; may be because I am close to the President, or because I believe in his cause.
“There is no time that I will ever be a rubber stamp. Yes, I believe in President Buhari as a person and I believe in my party, the APC, but I believe that our problems as Nigerians are Nigerian problems. They are neither APC nor PDP problems, they are Nigerian problems, that require Nigerian solution. So, we have to work together.”
“We will be there for the executive arm of government all the time in moving this country forward. We are going to challenge the executive in a manner that is decent but decisive. As a Minister, you have to do your ministerial job well. We will make government appointees to do what is required of them.
“We have to deal with the issues confronting us. It is not going to be easy, but we have to build a relationship that have mutual respect, collaboration and partnership. It is achievable,” Lawan noted.
“We are not here for self serving. We came here with a lot of experiences to impact positively in our country. We are here and we will remain focus to make this government work”.
The Senate President used the Forum to charge women  to be more involved in politics, saying, “the political space in the country is wide enough to accommodate our women, but the ball is in their court to take the advantages”.
In her remarks, Senator Emordi urged the leadership of the Senate to use their expertise to better the lots of Nigerians.
Emordi said the group was formed to give support where necessary to serving women in the parliament, adding that, “it is our objective to promote cordial relationship between the executive and legislature, and remove the boundaries on women participation in politics for good  governance”.
On his part, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, said the Senate will do all in its power to ensure that President Buhari delivers on his next level agenda to Nigerians in the next four years.
Omo-Agege who stated this on Friday while receiving a delegation of the Abraka Progressive Union said the upper legislative chamber would focus on providing legislation that would create an enabling environment for President Buhari’s government to record all-round success at the end of his tenure in office.
According to him,  the commitment by the Senate in this direction stems from its bi-partisan approach which led to the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly.
His words : “We’ve started on a bi-partisan note. We had only 62 APC senators on the floor during the elections, and we had 68 votes, meaning we got support from the opposition party in the Senate.
“So working with everybody, we will work with the President to create an enabling environment for his administration to succeed. I know there are lots of expectations from  Nigerians, but we will do our best to provide leadership to deliver the dividends of democracy to our people”.
Speaking earlier, leader of the delegation, Dr. Ben Eruotor, said the reason for the visit  was to felicitate with him on his emergence as Deputy President of the Senate.

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