“External Forces Behind NASS Crisis”

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines Tuesday, July 21st, 2015

Ayodele Afolabi, Abuja – A member of the Like Minds Senators, Senator Hamma Misau has said the crisis in the National Assembly was being masterminded from outside, particularly by some politicians while also advising the sponsors of the crisis to desist immediately.

Misau in a statement in Abuja yesterday advised those who want to use the National Assembly as a ground for their war of political relevance and control to allow the legislators to work and perform their constitutional duty which they owe the electorate.

He added that Senators and House of Representatives members were not elected for the purpose of fighting for leadership offices but to go and pass legislations, motions, engage in debates and oversight functions which will lead to improved standard of living for the people.

While chiding those who are using some senators and representatives to create division and rancour in the National Assembly, Misau said ” they should allow us to move on after the already concluded election of the leaders so that we can face our job.

In any election there must be winners and losers and I don’t know when it becomes compulsory for the losers to be given other positions before we can perform our constitutional duties”.

When I heard my colleague, Kabiru Marafa, threatening fire and brimstone saying that they will bring the roof of the National Assembly down if their men who lost in the elections to select the leadership were not accommodated, I knew he was not the one speaking. He was only a mouth-piece for their sponsors.

Why should the National Assembly be grounded because some people failed in election into leadership positions? When then Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar lost in the presidential primaries to then General Muhammadu Buhari, did they insist they must get the Vice Presidential slot or other positions? Let us stop all these threats and move on”, he said.

The Senator from Bauchi said those who are insisting that Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila should be majority leader in the House of Representatives should be ready to go for election because the explanation by Speaker Yakubu Dogara on the need for federal character and equal representation of all the geo-political zones in line with the constitution and House rules were logical and realistic.

He however warned those who would rather follow the dictates of their Godfathers instead of seeking to fulfill their election mandate that they were only heating up the polity for no just cause and that history will not forgive them.

” It is not the first time people will lose election and it will not be the last time and the country remains bigger than any individual. I am surprised that Senators and Representatives are following, without any query, the dictates of some Godfathers who have no constitutional mandate and in the process they are jeopardising their own responsibilities to the people. Eventually, you are the one who will be judged base on your performance by the people”, he said.

The Senator said the Like Minds group were privy to some sinister plots being hatched by those sponsoring the crisis in the National Assembly and that ” we will expose them in due course so that Nigerians can know the type of people we are dealing with, despite their huge investment in propaganda war”.