National Assembly: Ndume attacks Saraki, Dogara

ORMER Senate Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume yesterday scored Senate President Bukola Saraki’s leadership of the upper chamber below average. 

Ndume, who represents Borno South Senatorial District, said it was stating the obvious that the Senate under Dr. Saraki, has failed Nigerians.

Speaking at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, the Borno senator noted that Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, had privatised and personalised the legislative arm of government.

Ndume said Saraki has no justification to retain his seat as Senate President after defecting to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He also lauded the military for the concerted effort at eliminating insurgency in some parts of the country.

On the Senate leadership, Ndume said: “I really want to admit that we have failed in our responsibility to the people somehow but we the members are not responsible for that.

”It is more of the responsibility of the leadership that shut down the Senate abruptly because of personal issues.

”It is very unfortunate. The Senate is the Nigerian Senate, it is not the senator’s Senate; it is not Saraki’s Senate.

“It is very unfortunate that the National Assembly has been reduced to Saraki and Dogara.”

According to him, Saraki and Dogara have privatised and personalised the legislative arm of government, a development he called an aberration.

Ndume said: “They (Saraki and Dogara) have privatised and personalised the institution, and the reason we were elected to be there has been relegated to the background.

“This is very unfortunate, but I want Nigerians to know that the Senate has not been shut down by the Senators or members of House of Representatives.

”The Senate was shut down by Saraki and Dogara and they should be held responsible for that.”

He noted that the Senate, which is yet to reconvene, must move on without Saraki.

The former Senate Leader added that he had made concerted efforts to see how the Senate could reconvene, especially to consider about five matters of national importance.

His efforts, he said, have been without success, adding that the the matters he wanted considered were abandoned by the National Assembly before it proceeded on the long recess.

His words: “We tried everything to get the Senate President or the leadership to reconvene the Senate, but that have not been successful.”

On why the Senate President should quit, Ndume noted that  Saraki should know that he was not supposed to retain the position of President of the Senate, because he could not “eat his cake and have it”.

Saraki, he said, lost all rights to retain the seat when he defected to the PDP.

Ndume posited that the only thing that could save Saraki from being impeached remained a vote of confidence from his colleagues.

”I think that is the only thing he can do; may be he did that before, let him try it; let him call for vote of confidence from us, his colleagues.

”I assure you that he will not get the majority.”

Ndume described the statement credited to some politicians that Saraki could only be impeached by two-third of members of the house as not only wrong, but also a total misconception.

To him, since Saraki decided to leave the APC for PDP, he should have left the position as he could not be in a minority party and be President of the Senate.

He recalled that as minority leader in the House of Representatives, he defected to PDP from the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and resigned from the position without being asked to do so.