From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot do without other opposition in the National Assembly leadership to create stability and for constitutional amendments in the legislature.
He said this against the backdrop of the race to fill the principal officers positions in the National Assembly.
He spoke with State House correspondents after joining residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for a Sallah homage to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Friday.
Lawan, who expressed confidence that the opposition would not usurp the posts despite the configuration of the 10th National Assembly, in which parties other than the APC will have a strong presence, said it was wrong presumption that the ruling party is not united.
Asked whether he was worried that the opposition could spring a surprise usurpation of the posts, he said: “I don’t think opposition parties are planning to usurp because it is presumptuous that the APC will not be a united party.
“APC is a united party and the opposition party will simply work with the APC majority for us to have stability, because there is no way an opposition will decide who should be the senate president who should be the speaker; it is our party and other leaders that will decide which zone or whoever, and the rest of us in the party will key in and of course the opposition would have no option but to support.
“I don’t see anything wrong in the opposition talking to us, or we talking to the opposition to ensure that we’re on the same page, because we need opposition to ensure that we get most of our constitutional amendments passed when the time is right. Because we can’t have the 73 in the Senate.
“So, you need 73 senators at least for you to have any constitutional amendment done. So, you would need the opposition.
The President of the Senate, refused to respond to a question about whether he would re-contest for Senate president again. He said: “I’m not here to answer whether I’m running for Senate President or not.”
Lawan praised President Buhari for his service in the last eight years, saying that the administration has done “tremendously well.”
According to him: “The Buhari administration is closing on a very strong note. We have succeeded in reducing, minimizing the insecurity that we met in 2015.”