Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has described insinuations that he would be a rubber stamp to the Executive as “sentimental and laughable”.
Lawan, according to a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mohammed Isa, made this known while addressing a group, Women Parliamentarians, led by Senator Joy Emordi on Thursday in Abuja.
He noted that, believing in President Muhammadu Buhari’ s vision and that of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and his personality should not be misconstrued to mean that he is not independent mind.
According to him, “during my campaign, I was called a potential rubber stamp Senate President to the executive; may be because I am close to the President, or because I believe in his cause.
“There is no time that I will ever be a rubber stamp. Yes, I believe in President Buhari as a person and I believe in my party, the APC, but I believe that our problems as Nigerians are Nigerian problems. They are neither APC nor PDP problems, they are Nigerian problems, that require Nigerian solution. So, we have to work together.”
“We will be there for the executive arm of government all the time in moving this country forward .
“We are going to challenge the executive in a manner that is decent but decisive. As a Minister, you have to do your ministerial job well. We will make government appointees to do what is required of them.
“We have to deal with the issues confronting us. It is not going to be easy, but we have to build a relationship that have mutual respect, collaboration and partnership. It is achievable,” Lawan noted.
“We are not here for self serving. We came here with a lot of experiences to impact positively in our country. We are here and we will remain focus to make this government work”.
The Senate President seized the occasion to charged women to be more involved in politics, saying, “the political space in the country is wide enough to accommodate our women, but the ball is in their court to take the advantages”.
In her remarks, Senator Joy Emordi congratulated the Presiding Officers and the leadership of the 9th Senate for what she described as smooth transition, urging them to use their expertise to better the lots of Nigerians.
Emordi said the group was formed to give support where necessary to serving women in the parliament, adding that, “it is our objective to promote cordial relationship between the executive and legislature, and remove the boundaries on women participation in politics for good governance”.
