Senate President Ahmed Lawan has told Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that the upper legislative chamber will take its oversight role seriously and perform its assignments without fear or favour.
Speaking on Sunday during a visit to the All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his Bourdillon, Ikoyi, Lagos home, the Senate President said performing parliamentary oversight functions well would keep every appointee of the government on his or her toes.
“Whoever is given a job must do it well,” he said, adding: “We will perform our job not to create hostility or engender rancour in the relationship between the National Assembly and the executive but to create synergy. Synergy will help us deliver our respective services to the people,” Lawan said.
He, however, assured Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari and the government would be supported from the National Assembly.
Promising to run a bi-partisan and united Senate, Lawan said senators had already formed some ideas about what they wanted to do and how they would operate – through cooperation and collaboration with all institutions and agencies.
The Senate President thanked Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC for ensuring the emergence of a united leadership of the National Assembly. He also congratulated Asiwaju Tinubu over the Supreme Court judgment on the Osun governorship election.
Welcoming the Senate president and his team, Asiwaju Tinubu described the National Assembly’s decision to perform its functions dispassionately as good.
He praised Lawan on his resolve to run a bi-partisan Senate, saying though democracy is the best form of government, it remains the most difficult to practise.
On the Supreme Court verdict on Osun, he said the government had cleared all the impediments on the way of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and that governance could now begin.
Tinubu said the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had exercised and exhausted its rights and that now is the time to support the governor.
On the Senate president’s entourage were Senators Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, Opeyemi Bamidele, Halliru Jika, Sani Musa and Bayo Osinowo.
Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, former Interim Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande and the party’s former National Vice Chairman, Southwest, Chief Pius Akinyelure, among others, received Lawan.