New Senate leader clarifies on how principal officers emerged

***Denies any list from Presidency

***says 38 minority senators signed for emergence of its leaders

The newly named majority leader of the tenth senate, senator Opeyemi Bamidele has debunked insinuation that the Principal officers emerged from a list delivered from the Presidency.
Bamidele spoke to the senate Press Corps after the plenary on Tuesday.
speaking on behalf of the other principal officers, he said they will use the assignment to make a difference that will be positive.
According to him, the presiding officers emerged without rancour in a manner that was trasparent and democratic.
He said after the election of the Senate President and his Deputy the emergence of the remaining presiding officers was not an issue to be decided by members, rather it was an issue that needed to be decided among the critical stakeholders of the party, which include members of NWC as well as those already elected into office in the two arms of Government.
He said the stakeholders were able to arrive at the decisions that led to their emergence at plenary.
“On the other hand with regards to the minority, again it was not entirely a party affair, because it wasn’t a typical situation where you have one opposition party rather six opposition political parties were involved and fifty of our colleagues were also involved, so rather than it being a decision to be taken at by political parties, it was more of a decision taken by members who were elected on the platform of the six minority parties.

“Thirty eight of the minority senators by virtue of their clear signatures took a decision as to who their leaders will be and of course this was also communicated to their respective political parties and as democrats all the presiding officer could do was to follow suit because more than a simple majority an overwhelming majority had decided.

“With twenty six signatures we have a simple majority out of fifty senators elected on the platform of the opposition political parties, clearly 38 of them signed and again it was a very clear cut situation and we thank God both ways it was devoid of rancor
He said at the plenary session because some of the members of the minority parties felt that it was important to have an executive session before announcement would be made regarding the minority leaders and the presiding officer obliged them.

“At the executive session he said it was a very matured discussion, it was a discussion that centered around the need for all stakeholders to work together. So no Victor, no vanquished at least we are happy that eventually the leadership has emerged for the 10th senate.
On the way forward, he said for them the next task is to hit the ground running so that from Wednesday they will be able to take steps that we have a clear scientific understanding of what is to be done.
“The first task ahead of us is to constitute special committees of the 10th senate. Our rules make provision for six special committees and one of them is the selection committee which would not have been constituted without the principal officers who emerged today and they are the members of the selection committee and with that being constituted we would be able to immediately constitute the remaining five special committees and thereafter spend the next two weeks working on all the other standing committees of the senate.
“So before long by the grace of God we should have all the committees, special and standing committees of the 10th assembly properly constituted so that every senator can get busy, every senator based on his professional background can properly fit into a sector where he can really add value

He said they are ready to attend to correspondence from the executive arm of Government.
“Part of what we are going to do in the coming days will be through a committee of the whole commence with the confirmation hearing of the service chiefs and some other appointees who have been named by the President

and then of course we have some other decision that we need to take regarding the steps which the executive arm of Government urgently needs to take on the way forward. Suffice to say as a senate we are ready to go.

On the extent to which the Presidency was involved in their emergence he said,

“There was no list from the villa, we are also not pretending about the fact that we have two arms of Government being controlled by the same ruling party, we can’t pretend about that.
“In any civilized democracy in the world the party and by extension those the party has put in governance in all arms of Government will show interest in those who lead, our own democracy is fashioned after that of US. “As a matter of sanctity and as a matter of clarity, the vice president of the country in the US is even the President of the senate. That is the extent of their involvement. Section sixty of our own constitution it is clear because our forefathers and the writers of our constitution who model our own democracy after that of the US we still have our own special brand of democracy.
“So section 60 says that senators shall appoint from among themselves, in order words, no vice President, is coming to preside over us, no other person is coming from any other arm of Government.
“That is greater measure of independence that we even have more than in the advanced democracies. So if the party is showing interest, again the rule says, it is the party that will nominate and when you say the party, the president of the country is the leader of the party.
“If you are talking of a political structure of the party. That is why you have the NWC of the party who are saddled with the day to day responsibility of managing the party and then you have the National Executive Committee (NEC) which takes broader decision and then you have at the Apex the President of the country as the leaders of the party.
“So sometimes it is a matter of semantics, when we say the Party, we are not going to run away from it, we are not going to do propaganda, we are going to adopt a simple and believable style of information management which is what will make it possible for us to say something and stand by it and we can defend whatever we are saying or whatever we are doing rather trying to cover up on what we say before.
“There was no list from the Villa and secondly the list of the people whose names were announced today were from the list of agreements reached by stakeholders and when I say stakeholders it is broad, leadership of the party, leadership of those already elected into government, the rank and file members of the party and even you know we did serious security background check before that, so it is a consensus list.

“To be fair to the APC everything is in order, what was read today was a consensus list. Look through media reports and see the names of people who were in Keffi on Sunday to finalize discussions they presented themselves to the National chairman of the party you will see that it is exactly the names of people who were announced today.
“Check also to see the names and picture of those who reported themselves in Lagos to the President during the Sallah homage, you will see the leadership of the senate as it was espoused today, all stakeholders are on the same page on this and events in the next few hours or days can only go to confirm this.
“Eventually all relevant stakeholders will be in the meeting to speak and the leadership of the national assembly will to join in the meeting. No real controversy.
“With respect to the minority, again, it is an unusual situation. And it shows again the growth of our democracy and the dynamics of our polity, the votes of Nigerians are beginning to count more than ever before and we are beginning to see a situation where no party political party can boast that even if you bring a goat the goat will win as we used to hear in the past.
“Today we have a situation where seven political parties are the vehicles through which people came to the senate. Once you are in the red chamber, you are a senator of the Federal Republic, as we always say, it does not matter which party you come from. However, for the purpose of constituting the leadership the rules were recognized, the fact that political parties have a role to play.
“So if you have six minority parties acting as vehicle that brought them to the senate and you are now looking for a letter which of the parties will now write a letter.
“It doesn’t matter how many people are in PDP it remains a minority party just like YPP or APGA with only one senator who came in on that platform. Basically what was more democratic was for all fifty of them to meet as minority and take their decision.
“They held a meeting and it was deadlocked there was no need for us to be concerned as we have enough to be concerned with as majority. They took their decision and 38 of them signed their full names, their signature, the constituency that they represent.
“That carries more weight, than if PDP had written, LP would have dissociated itself from it, if LP had written NNPP would have dissociated itself, if NNPP had written APGA would have dissociated itself and look at the leadership that they produced, minority leader is from PDP that has the majority of members, 36 members then of course the deputy minority leader is also of PDP so PDP has two, minority whip is LP and Deputy minority whip is of NNPP.
“Definitely what we are concerned about is that it is representative enough, it is democratic but the news for us is that 38 of them signed, minority will always have their say but majority will always have way.
“Minority had their say to the extent that the senate had to be stood down for an executive session for them to have all their say and when the senate reconvene at 5he plenary session majority had their way.”