The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has again reiterated his stand that the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, will be lawfully and democratically impeached.
Oshiomhole, who spoke after a meeting he held with senators and members of the House of Representatives in Abuja on Tuesday, said Saraki, who now belongs to the Peoples Democratic Party, cannot lord it over the APC, which he said now has the majority in the Senate.
He said while the PDP has 49 senators, the APC boasts of 56.
Oshiomhole said: “Democracy teaches us that the minority have the right to have their say, but the majority must have their way.
“So, if we have 56 senators and they have 49 senators, I insist that 49 senators cannot preside over the affairs of a house in which the APC has 56 senators.
“And I ask them to tell us anywhere in the world where the minority rules over the majority.
“Often times, we take flights to Washington and other places to understudy the American presidential system of government.
“Once you lose the majority, without further ado, you step down.
“Let me restate that we cannot be subjected to minority rule in the Nigerian Senate and, therefore, whether it is convenient for Distinguished Senator Saraki or not, the truth is whether by morality or by law or by convention, Senator Saraki can only avoid impeachment by toeing the path of honour, step down so that the APC can take over the leadership of the House.
“I want to repeat, Senator Saraki as President of the Senate will be lawfully and democratically impeached.
“It will not be illegally done.
“It will be done according to law and tradition.”
Oshiomhole also told lawmakers present that the party was of the opinion that the frequent changing of lawmakers was not good for the country’s democracy.
He said legislators get better on the job with years of experience.
He said: “Let me assure all of us that the National Working Committee is making this promise publicly and we are doing you no favour.
“Legislation and the legislature require experience because nobody can give what he does not have.
“We see people like Senator McCain, when they speak American people listen.”
The Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, asked the party leadership to reconsider its reward policy to give those who had shown fidelity to its course a true sense of belonging.
Lawan said: “This has been a season of defection, reflection and sacrifices.
“Most of our colleagues here have sacrificed their friendship to remain where they are and to do exactly what the party wants.
“I am sure that this season is also a season of regrets because some of our people who left have already seen the real sign.
“Every senator or House of Representatives member in the APC fold today deserves very gentle handling and good treatment.”
Lawan said the party’s leadership should move swiftly to address some of the problems between legislators and governors to enable it to prepare adequately for the forthcoming elections.
He said the meeting, which was earlier arranged to involve governors on the party’s platform, did not hold as planned because of the problems associated with logistics, but advised the party leadership to hold a similar meeting with them.
On the call for the National Assembly to reconvene, Lawan said it had become expedient in order to consider President Muhammadu Buhari’s supplementary budget for the 2019 election, especially as it affects the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He said: “We are insisting that the National Assembly reconvene and reconvene quickly so that we pass the budget request of Mr. President for INEC to start its preparation for 2019 in earnest.
“We also need to pass the request of the Federal Government to take a loan from foreign countries, which will be the only basis for now for the funding of our capital budget.
“To do otherwise would amount to sabotage because we are in a very unusual time because we have the leadership of the National Assembly divided between the opposition PDP and the APC.
“We have to work hard to ensure that our government is not sabotaged.
“If we don’t pass the budget request, it serves the PDP very well, but it doesn’t serve us well at all because it will negate what we stand for and all the promises we made to Nigerians.”
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuff Lasun, who spoke on the issue of the reconvening of the National Assembly, said: “I am not particularly happy that we are not able to reconvene the Assembly today because we decided a few days back that we were going to sit and consider those items that are very important and may likely hamper the function of INEC and other programmes without which the implementation of the capital component of the 2018 budget would have been slightly difficult.
“We are party members and I must say that I like the assurance of the chairman that members are not going to be abandoned because it is always very hot outside there.”
The House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, said: “We have to find a way of reconvening the Assembly because as it is, we are heading for a constitutional crisis and an inevitable government shutdown because the two things that need to be done if the budget for the election must be passed and the funding of the capital project and without the approval, that will be difficult.
“I was with the Minister of Finance a couple of weeks ago and she told me in no uncertain terms that if she did not get the necessary approval from the National Assembly by the end of August, we should forget funding for the capital budget.
“That is why I said it is a task that must be done.
“I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the Presiding Officers to allow us to reconvene the House for this singular purpose.
“It is just a one-day exercise so that we can all go on our break.
“I know that these members will be rewarded for their unalloyed loyalty to the party.
“We have 196 members in the House and that is about 40 members more than the PDP.
“With that number, we can do the party’s agenda in the House.
“Even within the PDP, we also have some members who will join us.”
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