By George Mgbeleke<\/p>\n
Senators on thursday declared that the position of the Senate President in the 11th National Assembly Senate is not vacant, expressing support for the re-election of the incumbent, President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio, ahead of the next legislative Red Chamber.<\/p>\n
The declaration followed a motion moved by Senate Chief Whip,Senator Mohammed Monguno and supported by Senator Cyril Fasuyi, who represents Ekiti North Senatorial District, during a Senate session in which lawmakers also discussed the need to avoid politically motivated interpretations of proceedings in the chamber.<\/p>\n
Fasuyi, in endorsing the motion, said Akpabio had already secured a place in the leadership arrangement for the 11th Assembly, insisting that the position should not be thrown open to a contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hereby support the motion ably moved by Senator Monguno that the seat of the Senate President in the 11th Assembly is not open to any contest. It is already occupied by Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio,\u201d Fasuyi said.<\/p>\n
He added that he was supporting the motion in his capacity as a serving senator and a prospective member of the 11th Assembly.<\/p>\n
The Senate President subsequently sought to determine whether the declaration reflected the general position of the lawmakers present, calling for those in support of the motion to indicate their position.<\/p>\n
The declaration was extended to cover the office of the Deputy Senate President and other principal officers of the Senate, with lawmakers voicing support for the position that the leadership seats should not be considered vacant.<\/p>\n
The development comes against the backdrop of political manoeuvring ahead of the constitution of the next National Assembly, when the election of presiding officers is expected to attract considerable interest among senators and political stakeholders.<\/p>\n
Akpabio, who acknowledged the political sensitivity surrounding the leadership contest, said the Senate
\nPresident’s position was now attracting attention following the conclusion of previous contests for other major political offices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the position of President is gone, position of vice President is gone, the only one that is left now is position of Senate President. So everybody will want to contest that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He expressed confidence that many of the current senators would return to the chamber in the next assembly, while suggesting that the declaration of no vacancy reflected the position being canvassed by supporters of his continued leadership.<\/p>\n
However, the declaration by the senators should be distinguished from the formal election of presiding officers for the 11th National Assembly, which will determine the chamber’s leadership in accordance with the applicable legislative procedures.<\/p>\n
Akpabio cautions against political interpretation of Senate debates.
\nBeyond the leadership question, Akpabio warned against what he described as politically motivated interpretations of discussions held on the Senate floor, particularly as the country approaches another election cycle.<\/p>\n
He said debates in the chamber were part of the legislative process and should not be taken out of context by television commentators and political analysts seeking to damage the reputations of lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t like the idea of people sitting down on television and trying to misinterpret what we discuss here in the Senate. We want to make the best laws, so we are bound to oppose each other and we are also bound to support each other, no matter the discussion,\u201d Akpabio said.<\/p>\n
He urged commentators to consider the Senate’s final decisions rather than relying on isolated remarks made during debates.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease take the final decision of the Senate into consideration. Don’t go and sit down in panels and try to do politically motivated discussions,\u201d he added.
\ncolleagues, one area that we have not really addressed our mind seriously to is the influence of hard drug and substances on our youth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He argued that drug abuse could contribute to the involvement of some young people in criminal activities, including suicide bombings, and called for stronger measures to identify and block the sources of illicit substances.<\/p>\n
The senator also recalled that one of his earliest motions in the chamber focused on drug and substance abuse, urging lawmakers to revisit the issue as part of broader efforts to address insecurity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to really look critically at that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The debate thus combined the question of the Senate’s future leadership with broader concerns about religious tolerance, public discourse, suicide prevention and the role of drug abuse in Nigeria’s security challenges.<\/p>\n
For Akpabio and the senators who supported the motion, the central message was that disagreements within the chamber should be understood within the context of legislative deliberations and should not be exploited to create religious or political divisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke Senators on thursday declared that the position of the Senate President in the 11th National Assembly Senate is not vacant, expressing support for the re-election of the incumbent, President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio, ahead of the next legislative Red Chamber. The declaration followed a motion moved by Senate Chief Whip,Senator Mohammed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18620"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18625,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18620\/revisions\/18625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}