Why We Supported Lawan For Senate President – Abdullahi

Senator Yahaya Abdullahi represents Kebbi North in the Senate. In this encounter with RUTH CHOJI, the lawmaker explains why his colleagues supported Senator Ahmed Lawan to become the Senate President, among other issues.

Some Nigerians are worried that the legislature might not be independent since the president endorsed the leadership of the two chambers. What is your take on this?

I happened to be the coordinator of Senator Lawan campaign organisation. Immediately we won elections, I left my constituency for Abuja and I gathered around me like-minds. We have been on this case since 2015. Even then we had the majority of the APC senators in support of Senator Lawan. What Saraki and others did was to defy the party and gave PDP the office of the Deputy Senate President even though it belongs to us because we are in the majority. It was the minority in the APC and the PDP that sustained Saraki for the four years he had. They later had their fight with Ndume, we were not there because they were a team. The party wrote an official letter to Saraki that, they have agreed since he is was the Senate President but to avoid rancour in the Senate, they should hand over the majority leadership Lawan and deputy to Akume, they refused. It was after they parted ways with Ndume that Lawan became majority leader.

As an ardent supporter of Senator Lawan, what are the qualities he possesses that you think will make him a good Senate President?

He is free from corruption. He has a clean record…

Don’t you think it is because he has never held an appointive position before?

When he was in the House, he was chairman of House Committee on Education, and other committees. If he wanted to be corrupt, he would have started from there. In the Senate, he had been the chairman Public Accounts Committee at a time. David Mark appointed him to that committee, which is the highest that is given to the opposition member because of his antecedents. He is also an intellectual. He has PhD, not the one they buy on the road side. He studied for all his certificates. He is a very good environmentalist, he was a university lecturer. He is also the most senior legislator now in the National Assembly. He spent eight years in the House and 12 years in the Senate. The only person that could march him is David Mark and Mark is no longer here. There is no other qualified person like Ahmad Lawan. Another quality is that he was the majority leader of the Senate. In keeping with tradition all over the world, whoever is the leader in the Senate automatically become the Senate President or British Prime Minister. In the US, Nancy Palosi was the leader of the minority but the moment the democrats won the House elections, she became the speaker of the House. So it is normal in keeping with parliamentary tradition. So automatically we said let him step into the shoes.

There are fears that the Senate might become a rubber stamp with Lawan as Senate President?

It’s impossible to do that in the Senate because a presiding officer is just an officer. Even if you come and with a Motion, the only thing the leader will do is read the prayers and those who agree with it will say ‘Yea’ and those who disagree will say ‘Nay’. So it is always the majority that carries the day. He cannot do anything alone. Any presiding officer who moves against the majority or does something that they are not happy about, he can be removed by the majority because it is the case of first among the equals. There is nothing that a presiding officer can do than tow the line of the majority. The party also settled for Omo-Agege from the south-south. The issue is clear. There is nobody that a party will sponsor and then we won’t obey the party’s instruction. Even in America where people have misgivings about Trump, yet the Republican Party supports him. There is no way the party will sponsor you or you win an election in the name of a party and then you say, the party should not decide who its leader become. The party has a voice in determining how their mandate is shared. There is no independent candidate in Nigeria because each candidate contests on a party banner. Some Senators bolted from the APC to the PDP, you can see that none of them returned. I’m sure if they had remained in the APC, they would have won their elections back.

The 8th session of the Senate had its valedictory session recently. What would you say were its achievements?

The 8t Senate did a lot in the area of number of Bills and motions passed. It brought in lots of Bills and laws that aimed to revive the economy. The 8th session did a lot that supersede the previous Senates. I can give them about 65% in term of performance. The only thing that distracted us from optimum performance I can say, was the wide chasm between the executive and the Senate. The Nigerian constitution is made in such a way that whatever you want to do, you must work together. If they don’t work together, it is Nigerians that will suffer. The legislature is independent only in term of operations, but in order for them to work for Nigeria, they have to come together. The moment that relationship suffers, it affects the whole polity.

Some Nigerians believe Senator Saraki is a hero who saved Nigerians from dictatorship and tyranny of the executive arm of government. What do you think?

I don’t mind if anybody becomes a hero or anybody is a villain. Nigerians prefer people who come out with their confrontational posture, but confrontation does not achieve anything. The issue is that, what have we achieved in the last four years? What results can we show the world that we have achieved in the 8th session? We could have achieved more if we were united and had a good relationship with the executive arm of government.

Given the opportunity to advise President Buhari on what to do in his second term, what will they be?

There is a party manifesto and also he has revealed what he wants to tackle which is insecurity, build infrastructure and fight corruption. It’s now left for him to operationalise these three cardinal objectives and come up with his plan. For him to do this, he must work with the legislature. They can determine who he appoints into some critical places. They can make imputs in the way the ministries are run and they can order the closure of the treasury and other things. So healthy relationship between the two arms of government is important.

Coming back to you, what are you going to do that will be different from what you did in the 8th session?

I won’t do anything different aside my personal vision and what my people sent me to do. I’m sent here to represent them and also support Mr. President to complete his agenda.