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Senator Ahmed Lawan, from Yobe, on Tuesday, emerged new Senate president when he polled 79 votes to defeat his only contender, Sen. Ali Ndume, from Borno, who scored 28 votes.
The House of Representatives also elected Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC-Lagos), as the speaker of the 9th House of Representatives when he polled 281 votes against Umar Bago, who got 76.
In a statement by his special adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Tuesday, the president also saluted all the national legislators and their political parties for their display of patriotism and non-partisanship before and during the election.
He commended the transparent and fair nature of the voting process, adjudging it as a plus for the democracy in the country. President Buhari described the emergence of the new leaders of the legislative branch of government as “a new dawn, different from duplicity and perfidy of the immediate past”.
He, however, charged the winners to use their exalted positions for the higher interest of the country, her people, and for the growth of democracy.
He said: ”The executive does not desire a rubber stamp legislature.
“While separation of powers is essential, collaboration among all arms of government should be the name of the game. Opposition need not be virulent.
”Stepping into the Next Level, the legislature has a big role to play for the goals of the administration to be achieved.This is for the ultimate good of the nation.”
The president urged contestants who lost out to be gallant in defeat and join hands with the victors who should exhibit magnanimity and eschew vindictiveness.
“At the end of the day, we, the people, who elected our representatives at the national level, are the winners,” he noted.
Gbajabiamila, however, seemed to have raised a poser in his ‘thank you’ speech to his colleagues when he vowed to “shake some tables” in the course of his leadership in the next four years.
Be that as it may, Nigerians will be more concerned on how the National Assembly will provide the leadership to steer the nation out of its current doldrum. If nothing else, they will want to see a National Assembly that would fire up the Executive to work and ensure that the nation would better off by May 2023.
