Lawan meets Osinbajo, says ‘NASS will never be a rubber stamp’

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja had a private meeting with the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.
Lawan, who fielded questions from State House correspondents afterwards, said the courtesy visit was to thank the vice president for the support and all the interventions he made during the contest for leadership of the 9th Assembly.
Lawan (APC-Yobe North) was on June 11 elected the new Senate President of the 9th Senate.
According to Lawan, the mandate given to the new leadership of the National Assembly cuts across all political parties.
“As new National Assembly, we have received a bipartisan mandate from across the parties.
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Young Progressives Party (YPP) voted for us and we believe that this time and opportunity to consolidate the support that we received across the political parties in the National Assembly.
“We believe that we must remain united in the National Assembly; we must remain focused for us to be able to deliver those legislative interventions that are necessary for good governance in the country.
“We also believe that we must foster relationship with the Executive Arm of government that is based on cooperation and collaboration.’’
He said it was the desire of the leadership of the 9th Assembly to work seamlessly with the executive arm of government in such a fashion that would deliver the democracy dividends that Nigerians needed.
Lawan dismissed fears that the leadership of the 9th Assembly would be a rubber stamp of the executive as the parliament was made up representatives of the people.
“My comment is that parliament is not a primary school or secondary school where you have a headmaster or a principal that will dictate to his students.
“Those who know what parliament is know that it is an aggregate or an assemblage of people who have equal status.
“Being elected as the Senate President does not mean that I am the boss of other senators; I am simply to co-ordinate and lead and aggregate views and lead debates.
“And whoever is in the majority that will be the decision of the senate appropriately and accordingly; so, there will be nothing like rubber stamp.
“So far, I have never seen a National Assembly that had a rubber stamp leadership and I have been around for 20 years to know if there was one.’’
He said that the 9th assembly desired to remain sufficiently on its track and must ensure that its oversight function was properly carried out.