Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said opposition parties would not determine the leadership of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as the race for the 10th National Assembly heats up.
The Senate President’s said this while speaking to 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.
His words: “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.
“I don’t think opposition parties are planning to usurp because it is presumptuous that the APC will not be a united party.
“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 will have no option but to give support.
“I don’t see anything wrong in the opposition talking to us or we talking to the opposition to ensure that we are on the same page, because we need the opposition to ensure that we get most of our constitutional amendments passed, when the time is right, 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.”
He also added: “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 rancorous chamber.”
