Loyalists of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday allayed the fears of the All Progressives Congress caucus in the senate over the ammendments made to the Senate Rules 2015, which provide for the spread of chairmanship and membership of standing committees across the six geopolitical zones irrespective of their political party affiliation.
The group under the aegis of “The Senators of Like Minds,” explained that the fact that the rule stipulated that the chairmanship and membership of committees must accommodate the six geopolitical zones did not mean that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party would have equal opportunities like the majority party, the All Progressives Congress.
Speaking to our correspondent in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, the leader of the pro – Saraki group, Senator Dino Melaye, called for calm among his colleagues in the red chamber over the issue because there was no cause for alarm.
He also assured members of the Senate Unity Forum, who are loyalists of Senator Ahmad Lawan, that they would all be carried along in the allocation of committees because Saraki, being a nationalist, would not be vindictive.
Melaye said, “The fact that the Senate Standing Order 2015 provides that the chairmanship and membership of the 57 committees be spread across the six geopolitical zones does not mean that the leadership of the Senate will allocate its committees equally among the senators, irrespective of political party affiliation.
“The word ‘equally’ was not used in the senate rule 2015 as amended. So, there is no cause for alarm.
The provision of the amended rule does not say ‘equally’ and there is no way that the majority party will have the same number of committee chairs with the opposition party. It is not possible, but everybody will be carried along.
“I also want to assure members of the Senate Unity Forum that Senator Bukola Saraki is not a vindictive person. I am speaking as the leader of the Senators of Like Minds.
“The senate president is a nationalist, and all members of the senate are his colleagues irrespective of political party affiliation or divide.”
It will be recalled that some APC senators who were not in support of the leadership of Saraki in the upper chamber had expressed concern that the current plan by the 8th Senate to adopt the provisions of the controversial ammendments made to the Senate Rules in the allocation of committee chairmanship to senators, would lead to a fresh crisis in the red chamber.
Our correspondent learnt that there could be a drastic departure from senate tradition, regarding the allocation of committee chairmanship as members of the majority party, the APC, and those of the PDP, might share the positions equally.
Investigations by our correspondent have revealed that the controversial ammendments made to the Senate Rules 2015, have made it mandatory for the leadership of the upper chamber to share headship of the committees equally among the six geopolitical zones.
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