…as 8th Senate winds up

By Musa Abdullahi Krishi

The Chief Whip of the outgoing 8th Senate, Sen Sola Adeyeye has revealed that the act of extorting government agencies by senators became common in the last four years. Adeyeye, who was speaking during the valedictory session of the 8th Senate yesterday, said the 8th Senate was also bedeviled by other anomalies that should not be repeated in the 9th and subsequent Senates.

“If I leave without saying some of the things we’ve done wrong, I won’t be doing good to the Senate. For example, our rules say we should sit at 10.am, but today we sat at minutes past 11.am.

That’s not the fault of the Senate President or some of us. But if we start at 10.am, we won’t be forming quorum. I hope the 9th Senate will be punctual. “Oversight shouldn’t be used for extortion, but unfortunately that has been the case. Since the inception of this democracy in 1999, the Senate has been battling with extortion of MDAs by senators, and didn’t change during the 8th Senate.

“The Nigerian Senate is the first where a first term lawmaker emerged as Minority Leader. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world. We must make sure that it doesn’t happen again. I pray that in subsequent Senate, we don’t have a first termer becoming minority leader. “Again, I don’t believe we did justice to the confirmation process. About 37 nominees came to this Senate, and two didn’t do well. I feel we should have rejected them.

I believe if we did that, the president too would have respected us. “I came to you Mr President but you were cautious not to be termed as somebody trying to be hard because of the circumstances that saw your emergence. On constitution amendment, it is the responsibility of the legislature to do that. But we must avoid a situation where debates are done as if we’re doing North vs South.” Other senators, including Senate President Bukola Saraki, who spoke at the session, which lasted for six hours, bemoaned the “ugly incident” of mace theft in April last year.

Saraki said despite the challenges faced by the 8th Senate, it has achieved a lot both in terms of bills passage and engagements with Nigerians, among others. Saraki said: “In these four years, we were fully engaged on the state of insecurity in the country, and spearheaded many initiatives to bring sustainable peace, and secure and protect the lives and properties of citizens.

“The 8th Senate organised a National Security Summit which made recommendations for bringing an end to the problems. Moreover, the Senate engaged with security chiefs for proper understanding of the issues; and urged them to make presentations to us on their requirements, so we could facilitate the needed special appropriations.

“We constantly engaged with the international community on the need for them to not only support the war against insurgency but to also lift the ban on sale of arms to Nigeria. “The Senate had to cut short one vacation in order to receive a U.S. Congressional delegation and persuade them on the need to canvass for the lifting of the arms sales ban, for more effective counter-insurgency strategies. “We assured them that human rights complaints had been addressed, and that we would ensure that any related issues would be thoroughly probed and appropriate actions taken.

The U.S. delegation was able to leave with Senate’s guarantee, and the arms embargo was reversed.” On his part, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said the 8th Senate would go down in Nigeria’s history as one of the best, which stood its ground in defending democracy. Speaking, Senate Leader Ahmad Lawan said he believed the 8th Senate did well but that going forward, the 9th Senate should pay adequate attention to oversight, saying “No matter how good a legislation is, you must look at how it is implemented.”

Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/how-senators-extorted-mdas-during-oversight-visit-sen-adeyeye.html

Responsible Senator.

Bunch of criminals

Yen yen yen....because you no dey again....you come dey open fowl nyash....nonsense and yeye senators

That is the senate led by Saraki my people from the East and PDP praised and hailed as the best senate.

Senator Adeyeye has said it the way it is 8th senate is the worst in terms of corruption like extortion from MDAs, kickbacks, budget padding and breaking it's house rules.

No one qualifies more to indict the 8th senate than Senator Adeyeye, his wife is the DG of NAFDAC and the woman was on channel tv airing her frustration on how the senate committee on NAFDAC tried severally to extort her agency.

Professsor Mrs Adeyeye DG of NAFDAC mentioned Dino Melaye as one of those senators that kept on threatening her of sanctions when they saw she was not caving or buying into their bribes and extortion of her agency.

But to my brothers from the East and PDP Saraki led senate fought corruption and stands to be the best senate since the history of Nigeria.

Does MDAs have personal funds that could be extorted?

Was it PDP senators doing this?

Was this reported to Buhari.

Since 1999?

So NOTHING changed even with all these FAKE CHANGE AGENTS.

Nothing new there.

Estacode to foreign trip to local trips to DTA, MDAs pay for you guys all.

And yet una dey still budget the same thing again in NASS budget.

God is looking at all of you

senate and money are like cat and fish

Nonsense...
proved that old age isn't wisdom.. so because you belong to the opposition, you are entitled to highlight the negatives alone. This 8th assembly is one of the best in the history of this country.. without them, buhari and his northern elites would have beaten us ragged with rods and sticks and his bedroom would have been where decisions concerning Nigeria would have been made

doesn't make saraki a saint perse because he was a part of them before.

I comment my reserve..

NASS of dirtiness and filthy..
This man tries to stand out but No way.. after all he can't denied all d stupendous wealth acquaired being a Nigerian senator...

If he wants d masses to bliev is a man of integrity, let him return all d Money including d unnecessary SUVs vehicles bought for them..

Mtchewwww!!! LegisLooters!

sapientia:
Does MDAs have personal funds that could be extorted?

Was it PDP senators doing this?

Was this reported to Buhari.

Since 1999?

So NOTHING changed even with all these FAKE CHANGE AGENTS.

This one is beneficiary of PDP lootcracy.

sapientia:
Does MDAs have personal funds that could be extorted?

Was it PDP senators doing this?

Was this reported to Buhari.

Since 1999?

So NOTHING changed even with all these FAKE CHANGE AGENTS.

Hi. It has been approved during budget defend for budget preparation and to be deducted for them during that oversight visit.

Babangida started this beruacratic thiefry,

I like the simplicity of this man but fear don't allow him to speak most time. However Nigerians should call for closure of red chamber.

Patriotzz:
Responsible Senator.

Why didn´t he say something sooner? If he was returned as a senator, would he have spoken out?

The man is the only senator I respect. He's always saying the truth without fear or favour.

From the posts I've seen here, I've confirmed my stance that Nigerians deserve everything they get from their politicians. An outgoing senator voices out what is so obvious to everyone just because he's leaving the position and some people here (who are supposedly educated) begin to hail him while others castigate him because of their partisanship.

You all should know that Nigeria's problem is not about political parties or ethnicity or religion but the political "elites" across all tribes, religions and parties who continue to take Nigerians for fools. But the bigger problem is the people who blindly follow them.

DJInfluence:
Why didn´t he say something sooner? If he was returned as a senator, would he have spoken out?

He said something at least. Read the info again you will see how he mentioned that he has pointed this out severally.