Senate Majority Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume has described the 7th Senate proceedings under the leadership of David Mark as that of ‘beer parlour discussion’, where the plenary lacked all sense of decorum and everybody talked any how during sittings.
He made this statement while speaking with parliamentary correspondents in his office in Abuja.
“I’m sorry to say this; the 7th Senate, when conducting proceedings used to be like beer parlour discussions where everybody talks any how”, Ndume said.
He stated that the current Senate would be different and would do things differently so as to support government in effecting changes that it promised Nigerians.
In his reaction to lingering leadership crisis at the National Assembly, Ndume described it as disagreements among members of the same family owing to divergent interest of some colleagues.
“The disagreements was a matter of interest. Everybody has his interest, a diverging interest that is now converging, just like I said during plenary, that it is only one Senate President that would emerge and everyone is qualified to contest”, he said
Recalling that he contested for Deputy Senate President after Saraki’s emergence, but that God gave it to Ike Ekweremadu, he added that his position as Majority Leader was God’s destiny.
“I remember contesting for the office of Deputy Senate President. I didn’t contest to lose, but to win and God gave it to Ekweremadu and now that I am the Majority Leader, it is God’s destiny for me”, he noted.
He urged Nigerians to be patient with this administration as the Senate was just settling down for business, while disclosing that they would soon roll out the legislative agenda to the public, especially as the Committees were being put in place based on merit so as to get the best for the nation.
“You don’t just distribute Committees without consideration of interest and merit so that things would be properly handled”, he said.