Ahmed Lawan rules out external help for future disagreements in Senate

Senate President Ahmed Lawan has ruled out help from the Forum of All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmen in future altercations between him and colleagues in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

He challenged the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to put in place a workable dispute resolution mechanism to handle internal crises.

Lawan said the Senate and the presidency share a common focus to unify the legislative and executive arms of government for the benefit of cohesion and national development.

Admitting that there might be pockets of disagreements from time to time in the red chamber, he, nonetheless, submitted that they would be resolved without recourse to party chairmen.

Chairman of the forum, Ali Bukar Dalori, had obliged the senate president the readiness of his organisation to intervene whenever disharmony arises among senators in the future.

Lawan said the APC-dominated chamber would work closely with the executive for the betterment of the country, citing power generation and distribution as unifying factors.

His words: “When we campaigned for the election into the offices of the President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate, the party must have seen how loyal and committed senators were. This was in clear difference from what happened in 2015.

“Therefore, Mr. Chairman of chairmen, I don’t think I will ever invite you to come and intervene on my behalf when I have issues with any senators.

“I owe them a lot and should I disagree with someone, it is going to be me who will explain to them.”

He said it has become imperative for the APC to come up with “a better dispute mechanism” to quickly address conflicts of interest as they crop up.