The crisis rocking the Senate over its constituted 69 standing
committees worsened on Thursday as aggrieved members took their
battle to the social media, accusing the leadership of
betrayal.
Some faceless senators, under the aegis of the ‘9th Senate Group
For Good Governance,’ on Thursday posted an unsigned message on
journalists mobile phones, accusing the leadership of the upper
chamber of reneging on its promises during the campaign.
They lamented that despite their moral and financial efforts to
ensure the emergence of Senator Ahmad Lawan as President of the 9th
Senate, the committee assigned to them fell short of their
expectations.
Part of the statement read, “We are some of the senators who
contributed our quota in the build up to your emergence as
President of the 9th Senate.
“You know very well that those who know you closely did
everything possible to dissuade many of us. Many of your opponents
raised a lot of questions trying to convince us. We kept away all
doubts and vigorously stood by you through thick and thin.
“You promised many of us good committees knowing how hard we
tried. Many of us tried to pin you down to specifics but you kept
shifting the date of the announcement until the date of our
departure for recess.
“When we come back from recess, this issue shall be raised and
must be addressed.”
Some lawmakers, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of
anonymity on Thursday, confirmed that the development was tearing
Lawan’s loyalists apart.
One of the lawmakers said, “The issue is generating serious
crisis as some loyalists of the Senate President are accusing the
Senate leadership of favouring people from the north at the
detriment of their southern counterparts.”
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that some principal
officers visited the homes of some of the aggrieved lawmakers on
Wednesday night to sue for peace.
However, the spokesperson for the Senate, Senator Adedayo
Adeyeye, has appealed to his colleagues who may be dissatisfied
with the committee allocated to them to exercise restraint.
Adeyeye noted that the chairmanship of committees was meant to
give opportunities to individual senators to contribute their quota
to the development of Nigeria.
The Senate spokesperson said, “First and foremost, I have not
received any call from any Senator complaining about the committees
to which they had been placed.
“It has also not come to my notice, apart from you (journalists)
now drawing my attention to it, that there has been any senator who
expressed dissatisfaction with the committee to which he was
appointed to head. I believe that everything is in the realm of
rumours and I don’t attach much importance to rumours.”