Former Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi has urged the executive arm of government not to arm-twist senators in choosing principal officers of the 10th senate.
Specifically, the lawmaker cautioned the executive to be wary of any form of imposition, saying imposition don’t work.
Briefing newsmen Wednesday in Abuja, Senator Abdullahi noted ahead of the inauguration of the 10th Senate, “the most important thing is to make sure that you allow the Senators to choose its own leadership and Senate leadership is by election anyway”.
He explained further “And most of the people who are Senators are very experienced people. Some of them are past governors, some have been ministers and people who have excelled in their various callings. They are not just people who were picked on the streets. So you don’t sit down and denigrate anyone of them when you dig deep or even on the surface, you will find out that these people are accomplished individuals, so you don’t treat those kind of individuals as babies or put them in the background”.
He added “I think the executive arm of government should be very wary of any form of imposition because impositions don’t work. The moment you divide Senators across party lines, you are going to have a very rough day”.
He emphasised “If anybody toys with the Senate and allows some scheming to happen within the Senate, the executive cannot perform optimally. So the important thing for me is for us to look at the Senate and allow the Senate as an institution to be stable and the only way it can be stable is to allow members of the Senate, irrespective of political parties that there are, to select the leadership of its choice” Abdullahi warned.
On the removal of fuel subsidy by President Ahmed Tinubu in his inaugural speech, the lawmaker said “The major issue is that on the subsidy matter, the position of the President is very right. It is not sustainable. Not only that it is not sustainable but the way in which it’s administered, it doesn’t reach those people who are expected to benefit from it. So since it doesn’t do so, why don’t you capture the resources like he said. Capture the resources that are wasted or used on subsidy and spend it on other issues like health, education and even agriculture so that you can establish a foundation for food security”.
Commenting on food security, he said “Food security is not just a policy, it is now part of the amendment that the 9th NASS did. That food security and food supply is a constitutional right of Nigerians today.
“The government can be taken to court for allowing anybody to starve under the constitution. It is there now on the new amendment so it is no more businesses as usual. If any Nigerian dies of hunger, the government of the day can be taken to court and people can now seek redress”.
