Senate President, Bukola Saraki seems to have incurred the wrath of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with the confirmation of their perceived political foe, former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, as a minister last Thursday.
Reports from the National Assembly reveals that Saraki is set to appease the aggrieved PDP senators with juicy committees, DailyTrust gathered.
It is no longer news that the strength and base of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the Red Chamber was the PDP Senators but the news is that the base is shaking, no thanks to the nod Amaechi got despite the trap of the opposition senators.
At the inauguration of the 8th Senate, Saraki rode on the strength of the PDP senators to emerge as the number one legislator in the country. The marriage between Saraki, his men and the opposition senators was intact until last Thursday when the former rebelled over the confirmation of Amaechi.
It was observed that since the inauguration of the Assembly, the relationship between Saraki and the PDP senators has been cozier than that of the senators in the unity forum, the Ahmad Lawan’s camp, the candidate of the top echelon of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Senate Presidency.
Daily Trust learnt that all was set for the release of the standing committees of the Senate last Thursday but the event that trailed Amaechi’s confirmation stalled it.
According to Senate Order 3(2), “The appointment of senators as chairmen and members of committees shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the six geo-political zones of the country and there shall be no predominance of senators from a few geo-political zones.”
Weeks ago, it was reliably gathered that Saraki had increased the Senate Standing committees to 65 from 57 but a source said more new committees have been created to appease the aggrieved PDP senators.
Regardless of the number of committees added, it would be divided amongst 98 senators as all ten principal officers would not partake in the sharing.
So far, Saraki has only constituted five out of the six special committees namely, Selection; Rules and Business; Services Committee; Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions; and Public Account committee.
Saraki is making moves days after the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, rewarded PDP lawmakers with ‘juicy’ committees. At the green chamber, the PDP lawmakers got more of the committees considered to be lucrative.
