Senate President, Bukola Saraki reveals what you NEVER knew about the senate (Read)

How true is the claim that the President transmitted a letter to the senate regarding his medical trip to London?

The letter clearly stated that the President will be away for 10 working days to attend to his health. I am a doctor, you can be attended to by a doctor, if he is not sure, he might say look I better refer you to another doctor. That happens to an ordinary person not to talk of the President of a country. I don’t blame the doctor that attended to him. He needs to be careful. He wants to share responsibility, he is just being over cautious. I think you are ok, I don’t want tomorrow you will say I am the one that said so, let’s someone else confirm what I am saying. I think that is ok.

He is taking 10 days off, he has done the right thing so that there will be stability. He has followed the process, nothing has been hidden. We wish him all the best. When we had the dinner he was fit and well. We sat together; there was no evidence that he had any problem. I think this is just to ensure that all righteousness and correctness are followed. There is no problem.

What is the state of the constitution amendment in the Senate?

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We have set up a committee headed by the Deputy Senate President. They have started meeting. We gave them a clear mandate. As you are aware, in the 7th Assembly a lot of work was done, it was passed by the National Assembly but it did not get the assent of the former President.

We have told them to break the work into two phases. Let us first agree quickly things that most people agree that should be amended. In two weeks’ time they are going to have a retreat in Lagos to review all the areas where people have common position. Secondly, they will get new areas.

We are going for areas that have little or no controversy. They will consult with speakers in all the 36 states so that we get their buy in as well. We will come back and try as much as possible to ensure that before the year ends we can pass the constitution amendment. It is likely that after that we will continue to work because there are some new areas that will come in that may need more consultations and engagement with the public.

But these ones that we have already had engagements before, I think with limited resources, it is better that we try and fast tract it and get it out. We are targeting that before the end of the year we should try and see we amend the constitution in areas that there is agreement by all. It might not be comprehensive but our attitude is, lets what we can do that everybody will agree than spending two three years on the same process.

Senate in the last one year has passed quite a number of resolutions but we don’t get to see many of the resolutions being implemented by the executive. Is that not a sign that National Assembly is turning into a toothless bulldog?

Constitution amendment is based on the feedback you get from the people, general consensus by the people and stakeholders. It is not in my place as a presiding officer or chairman of the National Assembly to say this is what is going to happen. Restructuring I think will involve arguments to and fro, pros and cons. These are the kind of thing I think at this first stage will pretty much distract us.

On resolutions, we have made it clear that we are not going to be a National Assembly that will not be effective. We have already set up something like a compliance committee to oversee some of these things we have made and see that the executive arm complies.

This National Assembly is not afraid of anybody. This Senate is not afraid to say the truth when it is necessary. We are not afraid of taking on anybody once we believe that the person is not following the law. There is no sacred cow in this business. We know by doing that the system will come back to fight us. Unless we do things right nothing will happen.

Look at the last investigation we did on TSA everything was made open. I was in the 7th Assembly; those kinds of reports don’t see the light of the day. I did a motion on oil subsidy, till the time the 7th assembly ended it never saw the light of the day.

But the TSA report did not only see the light of the day, its recommendations did. We will make sure that our resolutions have substance, transparent and that the right thing is done.

You earlier promised to make the breakdown of the budget of the National Assembly. Should the silence on that from you be taken that you have changed your mind?

No, I have not changed my mind. There is a process of putting it on our website. I have already released the figures, what is remaining is creating greater awareness on that. You cannot be shouting for transparency and you do not ensure openness in your own house.

The senators have shown a lot of maturity, patriotism and support. Nobody would even know that there is a slim majority. Without that support, that unity, majority of the issues we want to discuss especially those that border on reforms of this country cannot take place. They think of Nigeria first. I am happy and honoured by the support they have given me.

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