Let the council take out the leadership, not by force - Kawu Sumaila
Let the council take out the leadership, not by force - Kawu Sumaila
Even though the 10th Federal Assembly has been in place for two months, Nigerians are still asking what the right way is to get rid of its leaders.
Many of the senators she represents have said they want to be in the third or fourth highest post in the country.
But the APC party, which is in power and has the most seats in the Houses of the Federal Assembly, said they didn't agree. She said that they should let the party and the newly elected president decide how to divide the posts among the different parts of Nigeria.
But more and more people are saying that the 10th parliament's leadership should be chosen by democracy, not by favoring the goals of a party.
Onarabul Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila, a member of the Senate from the minority party NNPP, was one of the people who called.
Member of Parliament for Kano South Constituency says that members of Parliament work for the people of the country, not for the President or his party.
So, he said, they should just be given a knife and some meat and told to pick the president they want.
Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila said that the 10th parliament will do more to promote democracy in the country than any other parliament because no party with a strong majority can make laws on its own without help from the opposition.
The Presidency of the Legislature
He said that the constitution tells the three parts of government how much power they have, so the members of parliament should be able to choose the people they think are the most capable.
"Members of parliament should be able to choose the person they think is best, no matter what party they belong to, as long as that person will help bring the members of parliament together and feed the country," he said.
The new senator said that both the Senate and the House of Representatives have rules that tell them how to choose their leaders.
He said, "For instance, in the Senate, there are three people who have the right to get rid of the boss. The old senators who were re-elected are the first group. They are the leaders.
"Then the former House of Representatives members who were chosen to the Senate have rights, too.
"The new members of parliament who are in the two houses for the first time don't have the right to be in charge," Kawu Sumaila said.
'Changing the leadership is not effective'
The elected member of the senate said that in the past, the head of the council was chosen in a similar way, but that it did not pay.
He said that when a leader is impeached, the majority of lawmakers often stop supporting that leader to the point where they vote to impeach that leader.
He said that in the past, disagreements led to the removal of two leaders of the parliament.
"In the past, we saw how the ruling party and the presidency sat down and chose Patricia Etteh, but later the members of parliament rebelled against her and chose Bankole instead," he said.
'I don't support zoning'
The elected member of the Senate said that there should be leaders who will guard the dignity of the country and its people. He or she was talking about how the parliamentary positions are split into zones.
He said, "Not the charterers, but those who will have to write something from the presidency or executive branch and only have to sign it, as was done in the past."
"Because it's happened before. When Patricia Etteh was taken away and brought to Bankole, Okadigbo was taken away and Anyim Pius Anyim was brought.
Also, it was the MPs who brought Ken Nnamani and then Dogara and Saraki, not the government or their party, Kawu said.
He said, "The APC has never had an Arab vice-president from Lagos state in the past. And the Speaker of the House of Representatives is also an Arab from the same state. It only knows how to divide places now.
Religion should not be an issue
He said that the most important thing is not faith or sectarianism, but who can do it.
"Back when Senator David Mark was President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu was his deputy, and Ndoma Egba was the Majority Leader, they were all Christians," he said.