The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, on Wednesday asked the All Progressives Congress government to provide good governance and stop playing politics after elections.
Ekweremade said what Nigerians had been expecting after the elections was the dividend of democracy, asking the APC government to formulate policies and programmes that would benefit the majority of Nigerians, irrespective of political affiliations.
Apparently referring to a recent statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, where he was quoted to have said that the election of Ekweremadu as the deputy senate president was unacceptable, he said the sanctity of the ballot must be respected.
He said, “We are about to form legislative agenda for the 8th Senate. This will include electoral reforms.
“As I said in the beginning, we have finished with politics, what is remaining now is governance and this country belongs to all of us and the constituents are not interested in whether you are APC or PDP.
“What they want is good governance and we must unite as a people to give Nigeria good governance. The issue of bickering and differences does not have any place in the minds of our people. What they want is performance, what they want to see is good governance and we must unite.”
The deputy senate president spoke when he hosted members of the Coalition of Election Observers, who visited his office in Abuja.
He cited the case of President Goodluck Jonathan, who he said conceded defeat in the 2015 general elections to the opposition party.
He also advised the political leaders across the African continent to borrow a leaf from Jonathan, pointing out that the former President had saved Nigeria from a crisis by refusing to bow to pressure to challenge the sanctity of the ballot.
Ekweremadu stated that the 8th National Assembly would further amend the Electoral Act to make the 2019 elections more credible and acceptable than that of 2015, adding that the alterations made on the 2010 Act had yielded important results.
The convener of the coalition, Dr. Nwambu Gabriel, condemned the Amnesty International’s report on civil rights abuses by the Nigerian military.
He urged the Senate to also condemn what it described as Amnesty’s “blatant act of irresponsibility” as well as defend the military.
Gabrirl said, “As a coalition representing more than 100 local and international civil society organisations, we are concerned by the manner certain individuals and organisations seek to denigrate the efforts of the Nigerian military in its determined bid to stamp out the scourge of insurgency, which has ravaged the North-East of our country in the last six years.
“We refer specifically to the latest report of the global human rights group, the Amnesty International.
“The report titled, “Stars on their shoulders, blood on their hands,” we believe that the Amnesty report, in addition to being a distraction of the Nigerian Armed Forces from its determination to extricate the insurgents from Nigerian soil is equally an attempt to denigrate the efforts of our gallant officers and men, who daily lay down their lives for our collective security.
“That this report is coming at a time the Nigerian military is inexorably routing the terrorists, surely speaks of a conspiracy somewhere.”
The group, therefore, called on the Senate not only to condemn the act of irresponsibility but to also rise up in the defence of the Nigerian soldiers.
He added, “We are mindful of the fact that the Nigerian military is one of the best military in the world. We are also mindful of the fact that the Nigerian military brought in a lot of both domestic and foreign civil society organisations and other reputable organisations to come to see what is obtainable at the detention camps of terror suspects.
“Even the International Red Cross absolved the Nigerian military of any wrongdoing. But we were surprised that the Amnesty International that is so respected could come up with such report.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday said the party would not respond to Ekweremadu’s charge to the party to shun politics and face governance.
“We won’t dignify him (Ekweremadu) with a response,” Mohammed said when our correspondent asked him for a reaction.
http://www.punchng.com/news/stop-playing-politics-after-elections-ekweremadu-tells-apc/

Tinubu has no choice than to give up and accept jesus as his personal lord and saviour because ekweremadu is going to be the deputy senate president till 2019 whether buhari's 150 cows like it or not.

Fact!

Hmmm

D mugulicious guy behaves like tinubu(opolo eyes)
U post thread, now u d ftc
No make sense

Ekweremadu should just shut the Bleep up. What has he be doing since 2007 as deputy senate president and now he is trying to turn a cent

MuguliciousMUGU:
Tinubu has no choice than to give up and accept jesus as his personal lord and saviour because ekweremadu is going to be the deputy senate president till 2019 whether buhari's 150 cows like it or not.

And if u know what he just denied u(his people) in presidency, u will cry like 1day old baby

It's a shame that the apc and the dura born are keen on blaming pdp for their woes and party conflict instead of focusing on more pressing issues, they are busy fighting duly elected officers using them as a cover for their ineptitude and ability to move this great county forward.

I love the matured and precise reply the deputy senate president gave them, they should leave him alone and deliver dividends of so called change.

Clowns full national assembly.

Some people just had Opposition blood in them .... some APC leaders have forgotten they have won election and it is now time for Governance and Diplomacy not Politics .

lol, they still see Saraki/Dogara/Ekweremadu as PDP thus felt they lost the NASS to PDP.
But while the Sarakis and the Dogaras where shouting change, change all over Nigeria dem be Progressives but now dem be "traitor, betrayal and backstabbers" (which English I no see finish on Nairaland) .........

Ekweremadu abeg tell 'em o , U be nemesis to their greediness and they must live with you till 2019.

Issokay

Meanwhile, read part three, you'll be shocked too

https://samueliyanu./2015/07/02/diary-of-a-regular-village-boy-3-the-evening-of-shocks/

APC won the election, immediately beginning to feel as if nigeria only belong to them . I'm expecting anything good from APC lead goverment in the near future, because they have to solve their own problems within the party first before anything is done.

Timely advice
Run with it.

Mr Mouth Action and his Party should take note.
The first ruling and opposition party in the world (APC).

.

if God refuse to intervene in Nigeria case, this apc will pull Nigeria down too much until we will eventually discover oil in zamfara state.

What else do you expect from them. They have opposition blood in them. They just realised that they didn't prepare for governance and just finding excuses because their party was built on lies and propaganda so they want to continue with the lies. The only good thing about APC is their ability to take good pictures of the president.

I think ekweremadu needed lai mohd to dignify him. He is dignified.

#TrueWord

Keep teaching them how to do it right.

Matured response from dep sen.

Very silly statement from Saraki's side kick. Is there ever a time when politics isn't played in a democracy??

#WailingWailer DSP.

Tell them!

Oga Ekwerwmadu educating the politically clueless APC