... Decry Abandonment By President
The robust relations between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Senate is on the verge of collapse as Senators elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday appeared ready to battle the President as they warned of his possible impeachment if he does not curtail what they described as the imperial powers of governors of PDP controlled states.
Their grouse, sources disclosed, was President Jonathan’s alleged handing over of party structures to the state governors to their (Senators’) peril in the last PDP ward congresses across the country.
Consequently, the Senators, have resolved in solidarity with the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators to henceforth abridge plenary sessions such that no state matter, including bills would be considered until the President agrees to democratise the party structures and also grant them automatic tickets as he did for the governors.
The PDP Senate Caucus sources added met behind closed doors to take the stand, which includes a possible mass defection and a solidarity visit to the embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who himself defected from the PDP to the APC a few days ago.
The PDP holds the majority in the Senate as well as the House of Representatives.
Recall that recently, some local newspapers reported that President Jonathan had handed over the party structures in the states to the state Governors, who are now at liberty to manipulate electoral processes and determine who gets what.
A Senator, who craved anonymity, said the senators may have lost out going by what transpired at the ward congresses, where the governors seized the materials, compromised national party officers and refused to allow for a free and fair congress.
The irony, according to sources, was that it was the senators that ensured that Jonathan became President of the country even when the governors worked against such possibility.
“As it stands, no senator would be coming back to the chamber in 2015 under the hijacked congress,” the source, who asked not to be named told this news site.
Continuing, the source declared: “In protest, the Senators have resolved to abridge legislative businesses, consider a solidarity visit to the embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. Can you imagine that none of the lawmakers have gotten their allowances since July 2014. It could be a deliberate action meant to frustrate us during the botched congress.
“We are going to show solidarity with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal. We will not sit again. There will be no consideration of the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) and there will be no budget.
“We decided to adjourn and do no business and the APC Senators are in solidarity with us. President Goodluck Jonathan has lost the senate; he has left the PDP structures in the hands of the governors, let the governors also do our job. We are going to shut the government.”
Another senator also lamented that even before the ward congresses, for about three months, no allowances had been given to them, which he insinuated was deliberately done by the executive to starve them of funds for the ongoing congresses.
According to him, “Under this arrangement, if left unchallenged, none of the senators would come back in 2015. We are planning to boycott legislative businesses until further notice.”
The Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, had moved a motion, suspending the business of the day immediately after the Deputy Senate President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary read the letter by President Jonathan for the nomination of Okwu Joseph Nnanna for confirmation as Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Via THEWILL
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