Activist turned politician, Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna central senatorial district in Kaduna state, has warned his party, the All Progressives Congress, not to force the removal of the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu.
Ekweremadu’s emergence as the number 2 man in the senate was as a result of a rare coalition between some APC lawmakers and Peoples Democratic Party senators.
The APC members who supported Ekweremadu were opposed to their party’s decision to elect the party’s candidates for the senate leadership positions.
Speaking with editors of Premium Times in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Sani said the APC is to blame for the emergence of Ekweremadu.
He cautioned that forcing the removal of the deputy senate president would be bad for the party since the APC does not enjoy absolute majority in the upper chamber.
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He said: “Yes, the party has gotten itself into a deep hole. It’s like an arrow that got deep into a skin. You don’t pull it off by force. It was easier for members of the House of Representatives to address their problem than the Senate for two reasons.
“One, APC does not have an overwhelming majority in the Senate. The difference we have is about eight Senators, or to a certain level seven, because there are some other persons in court. But, in the House of Representatives, there is an overwhelming majority of APC members.
“Two, Ekweremadu is now the deputy senate president. It is easier to play safe than to try to remove him. The dilemma the party is in now is that the PDP Senators see Ekweremadu as their own representative in the principal officers’ cadre, and because he is there, they do not oppose any motion, bill or anything coming from the Presidency.
“In the event that we are in need of two-thirds of members to resolve certain issues, we are definitely going to have a problem. He is being seen as a representative of a section of the country, South East, in the power equation of Nigeria. If he is ejected, there is no way the people in that region would not be provoked to stand up against this administration.”
“So, those who voted for Ekweremadu to be deputy to the senate president got the party into a difficult situation.
“There are a good number of APC Senators that are aggrieved with its leadership. With that division, if one decides now to antagonise the PDP members in the Senate, one can imagine the chaos that is likely to break out there.”
Sani also praised the stance of President Muhammadu Buhari to remain neutral and stay out of the leadership crisis at the national assembly.
“The president’s philosophy is that he is for everybody, and for nobody. Clearly, that is the best the president can do in the circumstance.
“He cannot do otherwise than to seek to work with the National Assembly if he is to succeed in the execution of his programmes, rather than to be bogged down by the problems in the National Assembly.
“If the PDP, as the opposition, made a clear statement that they were prepared to see to the success of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, it would be a victory.
“Nobody in the PDP can dare challenge good programmes that would be of benefit to the socio-economic and political dynamics in Nigeria,” he concluded.
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Meanwhile, the senator representing Edo South Senatorial district, Matthew Urhoghide, has said Buhari’s stance that he will run a government of saints is impossible
The post Shehu Sani Cautions APC On Plot To Remove Ekweremadu appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.
Shehu Sani Cautions APC On Plot To Remove Ekweremadu
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