Since 1999, the ninth National Assembly has done far better than the five that came before it, according to Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila.

The 9th Assembly’s presiding officers also bemoaned how some Nigerians had the erroneous idea about the 9th National Assembly and thought it was only a rubber stamp one.

Even laws pertaining to the National Assembly, he claimed, could not be passed for mysterious reasons, but this was not a cause to discount the Senate’s performance.

Lawan made the remarks on Friday, just before President Muhammadu Buhari was honored during Eid ul-Fitr celebrations at the State House in Abuja.

The Senate President, however, advised proponents of such bills not to lose hope but rather campaign vigorously when presenting them again to the 10th National Assembly.

Recall that out of about 68 legislations or amendments, five bills sought to promote more opportunities for women in political parties, governance, and society at large.

But the National Assembly voted against all five bills concerning the women folk, prompting criticisms from a cross-section of Nigerians.

One of the five bills sought to grant citizenship to the foreign-born husband of a Nigerian woman. Already, a Nigerian man’s foreign-born wife is automatically a Nigerian citizen.

While another bill sought to allocate 35 percent of political positions based on appointment to women. Another legislation sought to create special seats for women in National and State Assemblies.

His words, “First of all, when the bills, five of them that concern women, were not voted for by the National Assembly. I think naturally, there are things that we assume could happen. But they didn’t happen the way we wanted them. But remember that even bills that concern the National Assembly were killed.

“There are bills that concern the National Assembly itself, that did not see the light of the day. I felt bad that we could not pass even one. But then we shouldn’t really lose hope, we should continue to campaign, we should talk to more and more members of the National Assembly. And we should also re-strategize.

“Maybe the kind of campaign that was undertaken may not be necessarily the one that will give you the kind of outcome that we needed. But I’m very confident that we should continue to campaign for issues that we have not been able to get right.

“Let me give you an example. The bill on Mayor for FCT, almost every constitutional amendment period Mayor of FCT will surface. But it has not been passed. Does that mean that we shouldn’t continue to ask for a Mayor for FCT, those that feel there should be a Mayor? No!

“There are issues that concerned the National Assembly itself that were not really passed. So I felt bad that we couldn’t pass any of them. But I’m also very optimistic that if we re-strategize, look at the way we campaign we could get either all of them or some of them passed in the next Assembly by the grace of God”.

Dr. Ahmad Lawan, the Senate President, gave the hint during Tuesday’s plenary and bemoaned the President’s failure to sign the constitution-altering law and 18 other bills.

President Buhari had on Friday last week, assented to 16 out of the 35 constitutional alteration bills transmitted to him for assent by the National Assembly.

Lawan informed the Senate in session of the president’s move, noting that just 16 of the 35 proposals to amend the Constitution that were given to him in January had received his assent.

According to the Senate President, the most striking of the assented 16 bills was the Fifth Alteration Bill Number 6 which makes provisions for financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and Judiciary.

Lawan listed others including those that dwell on power devolutions in the areas of moving railway services, correctional centres and power generation and distribution, from the exclusive list to concurrent list.

He, however, vowed that the 19 bills that were not assented to by the President will still be pursued vigorously by both chambers of the National Assembly for that purpose.

The first of such 19 bills not assented to by the President was the Fifth Alteration Bill Number 24 , which sought for an Act to Alter the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Empower the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly to Summon the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Governors of States to Answer Questions on issues on which the National and State Houses of Assembly have the Powers to make.

Also Fifth Alteration Bill Number 7 which sought for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to compel persons to obey or comply with Legislative Summons, was refused assent by the President.

Others important ones are:

Fifth Alteration Bill Number 29 which sought for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to provide for a State of the Nation and State of the State Address by the President and Governor.

Fifth Alteration Bill Number 22 which sought for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Specify the period within which the President or the Governor of State shall present the Appropriation Bill before the National Assembly or House of Assembly.

Fifth Alteration Bill Number 30 which sought for “an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Include Former Heads of the National Assembly in the Council of State.

Fifth Alteration Bill Number 14 which sought for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to move Fingerprints, Identification and Criminal Records from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.

Fifth Alteration Bill Number 18 which sought for “an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Empower the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission to Enforce Compliance with Remittance of Accruals into and Disbursement of Revenue from the Federation Account and Streamline the Procedure for Reviewing the Revenue Allocation Formula.

Fifth Alteration Bill Number 66 which sought for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Reflect the Establishment and Core Functions of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps etc.

In a judgement delivered on Monday, the apex court allowed the appeal filed by the APC against Bashir Machina’s candidature.

The Apex Court had last Wednesday fixed February 6, for final judgment in the long-drawn legal battle.

Delivering the judgment, three out of a five-member panel concurred with the position of the APC that the suit at the trial court ought not to have commenced via an originating summons since it contained allegations of fraud.

In the lead judgement, Justice Centus Nweze faulted the approach of Bashir Machina in commencing the suit at the Federal High Court Damaturu division by way of originating summons and without oral evidence to prove allegations of fraud.

Nweze said, “The bedrock of the suit shows that there were allegations of fraudulent practices against the appellants.

“That the 1st respondent accused the APC of fraudulently substituting his name with that of Lawan. Where there is an allegation of fraud it should not be commenced by an originating summons.

There was a need to call witnesses to prove allegations of fraud,” he added.

In the majority decision, the apex Court also set aside the decision of the Appeal Court, Gombe Division, which affirmed the decision of the trial court that declared Machina the Senatorial Candidate for Yobe North.

But in a nonconforming decision by Justices Emmanuel Agim and Adamu Jauro, the apex Court said Lawan never participated in the APC primary held on 28 May, as he withdrew voluntarily to participate in the presidential primary held on 8 June 2022.

The minority decision held that in the conduct of another primary on June 9, 2022, where Lawan emerged was in breach of Section 84 (5) of the Electoral Act as the APC never cancelled that held on 28 May before organizing another.

During the Party’s primary election in May 2022,  Machina emerged as the unopposed winner of the election while Lawan contested and lost the party’s presidential ticket to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Machina had previously noted cried out that the Senate president and some forces were trying to clinch the ticket from him.

Amid the outburst, the APC submitted Lawan’s name to the Independent Electoral Commission as its candidate, leaving the confused electoral body with no choice but to leave the senatorial district candidacy empty when it released the full list of candidates across the country

Machina had in turn dragged both his party and the INEC to court in a suit asking the court to declare him as the authentic senatorial candidate.

In September 2022, a federal high court in Damaturu, the Yobe capital, declared him as the winner ordering both the APC and INEC to recognise Machina as the candidate.

Also, an appeal court in Abuja affirmed Machina as the authentic candidate of the APC Yobe North senatorial district.

After losing at both levels, the ruling party took the case to the apex court where it argued that the primary election held on 28 May last year which produced Machina was in breach of the Electoral Act 2022.

The counsel to the party, Sepiribo Peters contended that one Danjuma Manga who conducted the said primary election was not nominated by the National Working Committee of the party.

He told the court that the APC cancelled the primary poll on account of the irregularities observed during the exercise.

He argued that the other primary held on 9 June was conducted by the APC NWC, and produced Lawan as the party’s authentic candidate.

However, Machina’s lawyer, Sarafa Yusuf, prayed the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit on the ground that the Senate President did not challenge the suits at both the trial and lower courts.

The meeting comes a day after the Senate rejected the President’s request to restructure the N22.7tn Ways and Means advances collected by the Federal Government from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Lawan who arrived at the State House few minutes before 3:00pm is expected to discuss Buhari’s loan request as well as other ancillary issues regarding the 2023 appropriate bill.

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, on Wednesday, at the plenary read the nomination letters sent to the senate by the president naming 14 others as members of the board.

Onochie is currently the Special Adviser on Social Media to the president.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Friday, 7 2022 presented the 2023 appropriation bill tagged: “Budget of Fiscal Sustainability and Transition” to the National Assembly in Abuja.

Lawan disclosed this at a reception organised for him on Tuesday after he was conferred with the Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON) by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Lawan further disclosed that Senators would commence debate on the appropriation bill on Wednesday to meet with its time frame.

He said, “We are purposeful, and we are focused. It’s not for nothing that the presidency decided to give us 12 honours.

“They know our contribution to not only the administration of good governance but also stability of the polity.

“I strongly believe that the national assembly of today has provided so much inputs into political stability in Nigeria because our records are there.

“People can look at what we have done and also those things that we didn’t do. I believe that our colleagues in the 9th senate worked so hard.”

Lawan who led a delegation of the leadership of the Senate on Thursday to assess the level of attack on the correctional facility by insurgents faulted the Nigerian Correctional Service for not providing Closed Circuit Television cameras at the Kuje correctional facility and others across the country.

Speaking after an assessment of the correctional facility, Lawan said, “The attack on this correctional facility is symptomatic of the failure of security architecture. The attack is only a culmination of the failure of security systems.

“We were told that an estimated 300 terrorists attacked this facility. They came on foot, and I believe they should have been detected.

“In the first place, three hundred people will not come for an operation like this without planning. Planning must have taken a week, a month or a bit more.

“I believe that our security agencies should have picked this from their tracking systems in the FCT.”

Lawan also expressed gross disappointment over the lack of  CCTV cameras in the facility saying that such an attack could have been altercated if the relevant authorities got signals early enough from the prison.

The Senate President then asked the Comptroller General of the NCS to include a request for the provision of CCTV cameras across maximum and medium correctional centers across the country in its 2023 budget proposal to the National Assembly for approval.

He said, “Secondly, having gone round the facility itself, we are disappointed that this facility does not have Closed  Circuit Television cameras, something that would record and give you details of what is happening and sometimes record the events.

“This is a medium security custodial center, how on earth in the FCT facility of this magnitude we don’t have CCTV? It means we can say that all other medium security centers across the country do not have CCTV.

“We have asked the Comptroller General of Correctional Centre to ensure that the request for CCTV at the maximum and medium custodial centres of the country are included in their 2023 budget because this is essential and indispensable.”

“Now, as this facility lacks a functional CCTV, there’s no record of what happened, except narration. But if we had CCTV, at least the records would have been there and analysis made, and arrest will be based on the information from the CCTV,” he stated.

The Senate President said that here people fail to do their job properly, and they have been given that responsibility, they should be asked to take responsibility.

He said, “If people don’t take responsibility for their failure, then it means nobody would bother to do what is expected of their office or the job that the person has been given.

“Having this kind of situation today in the FCT, that we have criminals who are free now all over the city is very dangerous and you can never have peace of mind

“The FCT has the seat of government, and today that seat is not safe. So, we have to do whatever it takes to get everybody back.”

Lawan, therefore, tasked the security agencies to ensure that the insurgents who escaped from the Kuje medium security custodial center are found and brought back.

Some gunmen believed to be terrorists had on Tuesday night bombed the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre, Abuja, the terrorists released 600 inmates, including 15 deadly Boko Haram commanders who masterminded the March 28 attack on the Kaduna-Abuja train at Katari, Kaduna, in which eight persons were killed and over 68 passengers kidnapped.

In a twist of event on Wednessday, the Islamic State West Africa Province claimed responsibility for the attack in a 30-second video which showed the gunmen setting ablaze vehicles parked in the facility afterwhich they released some victims of the Kaduna train attack in their custody.

According to him, it was time for the country to diversify its economy, stressing that education and security are not the foundation of the development of every country but are imperatives necessary for greatness.

Lawan stated this while speaking in Calabar on Friday when he met with APC ahead of next week’s delegates’ meeting in Abuja.

“Nigeria needs to invest more in education and security. This is because there is an urgent need for diversification, and not to depend on oil only.

“If you look at a country like Singapore, they had almost nothing but they invested in their youths through education and that turned their fortunes around.”

The Senate President also spoke on a knowledge-based economy which he said can only be built on education because it opens many doors of opportunities.

“The sons of the poor and rich people should be able to go to school in Nigeria. This will make our economy better. If we have trained people and intellectual individuals then we will grow beyond imagination.”

Emphasising security, he said the government will need to unleash total federal might against criminality, especially banditry and insurgency in the northern part of Nigeria.

He said APC has been able to recover the 16 local government areas captured by Boko Haram insurgents in Borno and Yobe States.

“The insecurity issue in the country deserves total attention.

“Federal government should unleash all the federal might to quell insurgency, banditry and even the militancy in the Niger Delta.

“In the 9th Assembly, we have given utmost attention to all military and security requests, signifying the importance we attach to security.”

Lawan through the National Association of Nigerian Students not to disrupt political activities.

Lawan made this appeal when the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS President, Sunday Ashefon, visited his office on Tuesday.

His appeal come as students begin to stage protests in different parts of the country threatening to stall all political activities until the government makes an agreement with ASUU, to call off the strike.

The Senate President, however, urged students to continue on the path of consultation and avoid confrontation.

He said, “I want to advise, I don’t think it will be necessary to disrupt political activities. We should not do that and we don’t need to do that.

“What we need to do is to continue to follow the path of consultation, consolidation and avoid confrontation. It is when you emphasise consultation, that it’s much easier for us to find something that you can consolidate.”

Lawan assured that the Senate will work to ensure students return to school as soon as possible.

“Your prayer is that you want the Federal government and ASUU back to negotiate and resolve the issues. We have taken this prayer and have endorsed it and we will work on it as quickly as possible,” he said.

He used the opportunity to appeal to ASUU to suspend the strike for a certain period and create a window for negotiation.