Barely 24 hours after the senate chief whip, Orji Uzor Kalu declared his intention for the 10th Senate Presidency, some Senators are calling for issue based campaigns ahead of the election in June.
Among the Senators leading this advocacy are Senators Jubril Barau and Opeyemi Bamidele.
Chairman of the senate committee on appropriations, Senator Jubril Barau, incidentally also joined the race on Wednesday, for the Presidency of the senate in the 10th National Assembly.
Senator Barau who made this known on Wednesday while addressing National Assembly Correspondents, stated that the position of Senate President must be occupied by a Legislator that is fully prepared and abreast of all Legislative undertakings.
He argued that the quest for such exalted position as that of the senate President, must go beyond religious or another form of sentiments.
“We all remember the time when Senator David Mark was the senate President, while Senator Ike Ekwerenmadu was his deputy, and Madam Patricia Etteh was the Speaker. All three of them were Christians but that didn’t matter to us because, they were qualified for the job, and they were the highest in ranking”.
Meanwhile, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele has urged his colleagues to focus more on the socio-economic issues that could revive Nigeria, instead of dwelling on issues that could futher divide the citizenry.
Senator Bamidele who is the Chairman of the committee on judiciary, human rights, and legal matters, noted that the 9th Senate has achieved so much that need to be improved upon by the next set of Parliamentarians.
Development Commission
In another development, Wednesday’s plenary witnessed the first reading of four bills seeking to establish a development commission in each of the remaining geo-political zones of Nigeria outside Niger Delta, and North East.
The bills are seeking to establish a north central development commission, a south west development commission, a north west development commission, and a south east development commission.
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