The drama which played out on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, was a confirmation of an uneasy calm among senators in the federal parliament, investigations by Saturday PUNCH revealed on Friday.

The red chamber had on Thursday, in controversial circumstances, considered and approved the report of its committee on local and foreign loans which worked on the request by the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to borrow $22.796bn.

Findings by Saturday PUNCH among members of the red chamber showed that many of the senators had been complaining about the alleged ‘rubber stamp’ nature of the chamber which the leadership remained resolute to maintain and sustain.

A senator from the South-South geopolitical zone of the country, who pleaded anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said on Friday that the trouble started when the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, announced that the foreign loan request would be approved.

The senator said Lawan had made up his mind to work towards the loan approval, even when the committee had yet to start work on it.

He said, “It was the public declaration of the Senate President that made many of us to show apathy towards the debate on it, but we were prepared to make our position known before the final approval, which was done through the minority leader on Thursday.”

Another senator from the North-East geopolitical zone, who also craved anonymity, told Saturday PUNCH that the insistence by the Senate President that the Senate under his watch would always approve any request from the Presidency was generating cold war among his colleagues.

“Many of us are no longer comfortable with the people’s perception of the Senate as an annex of the Presidential Villa. The President of the Senate had said that his election was made possible by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress and the governors elected on the party’s platform.

“Also recently, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, also said his victory at the senate presidency election was made possible by President Muhammadu Buhari and the embattled Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole.

Witcher:
Well well another day of PDP's misinformation

Witcher:
Well well another day of PDP's misinformation

NaijaRoyalty:
Lawan is the worst senate president known to man .

The most useless i think .


God bless Dr Bukola Saraki

NaijaRoyalty:
Lawan is the worst senate president known to man .

The most useless i think .


God bless Dr Bukola Saraki

NaijaRoyalty:


Leave politics for men and get back to the kitchen .

Or better still, go to Romance or Sexuality section and discuss Valentine or Telemundo .

Another senator from the North-East geopolitical zone, who also craved anonymity, told Saturday PUNCH [b]that the insistence by the Senate President that the Senate under his watch would always approve any request from the Presidency[b] was generating cold war among his colleagues.

Afamed:

Keep quiet PDP mole , what do you know about politics safe for the ones they fed you with at Ochanja/ Oshe Ariara market

Your looting party , even when crude oil was at its peak $110 was borrowing to pay salary years ago.
PMB has never borrowed to pay salary even when the crude oil is at its lowest $50. You should be ashamed of your PDP

NaijaRoyalty:


May God rule your life the way Major General Mumuhadu buhari is ruling Nigeria

Afamed:

You suddenly have changed your anthem

This President of the Senate, who has now become an autocrat in the Red Chamber, declared, “The question of whether we will approve the loan request of the Executive arm of Government? Yes, we will pass it.”

Fanatical Lawan no longer understands the concept of check and balance in a democracy. He is unconscious that we are running a constitutional government and that check and balance must apply. Yes, the legislature does not exist to antagonise the Executive. However, it must effectively and efficiently check the Executive, else, there will be absolutism, as we are now experiencing in Nigeria.

The principle of check and balance has been thrown into the garbage can.No wonder Lawan said he would do anything Buhari requests of him in the Senate. For him, the loan request is a done deal. He cares less if this generation, and indeed, generation yet unborn, would be plunged into stifling debt repayment.