Saraki says Oshiomhole has Limited Knowledge

Oshiomhole: Taunted by Saraki 

BY TAIWO FAROTIMI

Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC has been described as a political leader who has demonstrated that he has limited knowledge of the history of the parliament in Nigeria and the provisions of the Constitution, particularly on the election , choice and removal of the leadership in the parliament.
A statement signed by Yusuph Olaniyonu, special adviser to Bukola Saraki, president of the Senate said it was clear that the APC chairman merely wanted to “feed his oversized ego” with his campaign for the removal of Saraki as Senate president. The statement sought to correct Oshiomhole when he said that the election of Ike Ekeremadu as deputy Senate president was unprecedented in Nigeria. It said, “Senator John Wash Pam of the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) became Deputy Senate President in the Second Republic even when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had the majority. The same thing happened in the House of Representatives when NPP’s Rt. Hon. Edwin Umeh Ezeoke was elected Speaker in an NPN majority House.”
Saraki also picked holes in statements by Oshiomhole insinuating that the decision for the National Assembly to go on recess was a unilateral one. It said APC senators would educate the chairman better. He also faulted the comparison made by Oshiomhole between the position of Godswill Akpabio who resigned as minority leader of the Senate (after decamping to the APC from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP) and that of the president of the Senate held by Saraki.

He said while the position of minority leader is a party affair, that of the Senate president is prescribed by the constitution and is decided by a majority vote of members. What that means is that even if Akpabio had not resigned as minority leader, the PDP would have removed him and appointed another person.
The embattled Senate president accuses Oshiomhole of demonstrating ignorance even on allegations of delay in the passage of the 2018 budget and distribution of committee chairmanship positions in the current Senate. While stating that the distribution of the committee chairmanship remains one of the stabilising factors in the Senate, Saraki directed the APC chairman to contact heads of MDAs on why the budget was delayed.

The Senate president had earlier corrected insinuations by the executive that the National Assembly deliberately delayed the budget to impede the work of President Muhammadu Buhari. He had reminded President Buhari how the National Assembly leadership met with him early this year imploring him to ask the heads of MDAs to respond to invitation by the legislators for them to defend the budget proposal.