***Democracy is being deepened, says Izunasor
The Deputy Director General media of the Yari senate Presidency campaign organization, Senator Addul Ningi, (PDP, Bauchi Central) has lauded the election of Senator Godswill Akpabio describing the process as free, fair and credible.
Speaking shortly after the new President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio adjurned plenary to Wednesday, he said, the election was free and fair without much anticipated drama.
“That is what makes the institution of the Senate different. The animosity, the fear of what happened in the last two days completely vanished. You go into the hall and you see how people were embracing themselves and that is parliament and that is democracy.
“We have refused to be intimidated by any enforcement and that is why we said there must be an election and those who came with the idea of theater party and the sitting government had the day we have no problem, we know we are in the minority, we were in a total disagreement, the election was free and fare and to be honest I was expecting it to be so.”
On whether the position he took was that of his party, PDP, he said it was not but that of the minority caucus as he regretted that not all of them actually voted on the same page.
“Some people actually went to negotiate and that is parliament but I believe in the next six months or so we are going to bind together by putting the nation first like I said in my several interviews, the nation first and when you come to the National Assembly you drop the party leaning, or region. Once you know that, it becomes the protector of the masses.
“When you introduce religiosity and political affiliation then the parliament takes the back seat. Democracy is maturing, you could see a government backed candidate won with just 17 votes, that shows that we are maturing if it were before it would have been a landslide so we are growing.
“We should not border by what happened today. It is an eye opener. We will go back to the drawing board and look at what we have not done well and try to ammend
On the insinuation that the ninth Senate was a rubber stamp, he said,
“I cannot described the 9th senate as a rubber stamp. My analysis of the last senate was that they keyed in to their party too much, there was no dissent and that is not what my party stands for.
‘There must be debate, there must be dissenting voice, opinion and need to speak when necessary and people must not be shut out that is why the parliament exists.”
A contestant for the senate Presidency, senator Osita Izunaso said he is happy that democracy is being deepened.
“I feel happy that members of the 10th Senate have made their choice, have elected their President and Deputy President. I think from there we can hit the ground running because a lot are expected from us by Nigerians..
“We have responsibility to Nigerian. The most important thing now is that we are senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not necessarily for your constituent and senatorial district. I believe that this 10th Senate will do a good job for Nigeria.