PUNCH
As the race for principal offices in the 10th National Assembly enters full swing, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, on Friday, in Abuja, said the opposition cannot determine who emerges even though the All Progressives Congress no longer had the strong presence it once enjoyed.
He also said the governing APC must involve the opposition parties in the leadership structure to ensure legislative stability.
“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,” Lawan told State House, correspondents after joining residents of the Federal Capital Territory for a Sallah homage to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
When asked about growing concerns that the opposition may bank on the reported division in the party and seize the process, he said: “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.”
Therefore, the Senate President explained that working with the opposition becomes critical.
“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.”
However, Lawan avoided discussing his involvement in the senate presidency race, saying, “I’m not here to answer whether I’m running for senate president or not.”
He praised Buhari, whose regime he said, was “finishing strong.”
