Abuja— The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Friday, said the opposition parties won’t be allowed to decide who becomes the next Senate president or speaker in the National Assembly.
He affirmed the selection of 10th National Assembly principals was the duty of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
However, the opposition parties would be included in the leadership structure.
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This was to ensure legislative stability in Nigeria, he told State House, correspondents after joining residents of the Federal Capital Territory for a Sallah homage to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
Lawan said:
“There is no way an opposition will decide who should be the senate president or who should be the speaker; it is our party and other leaders that will decide.
“I don’t think opposition parties are planning to usurp because it is presumptuous that the APC will not be a united party.
“The APC is a united party and the opposition party will simply work with the APC majority for us to have stability because there is no way an opposition will decide who should be the Senate President or who should be the speaker; it is our party and other leaders that will determine what zone or whoever, and the rest of us in the party will key in and of course, the opposition would have no option but to support.
“I don’t see anything wrong in the opposition talking to us, or we talking to the opposition to ensure that we’re on the same page, because we need the opposition to ensure that we get most of our constitutional amendments when the time is right, passed because we don’t have the 73 in the Senate. So, you need 73 senators at least for you to have any constitutional amendment. So, you would need the opposition.
“Don’t ever think the opposition should be pushed away. I don’t believe in that. I only believe in a bipartisan chamber because it is more productive, stable, calm, and gives you the kind of outcome you will never get with a very rancourous chamber.”
