9th National Assembly Will Not Be Distracted – Senate President

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Monday decared that he and his colleagues in the ninth National Assembly will not allow any distraction from their focus.

Lawan, who stated this when he received in audience a delegation of leaders and traditional rulers from Oke-Ogun in Oyo State, said the ninth National Assembly has promised Nigeria that it will work for Nigerians, saying; “and that is our direction”.

The delegation, led by the Aseyin of Iseyin, Dr Abdul Ganiyu and facilitated by Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, was in Abuja to attend a public hearing on a bill for the establishment of a Federal University of Technology in Oke-Ogun.

Responding to remarks by Raji, the Senate President said: “That is our trajectory. We are not looking sideways or back and forth. We know what we are going for to make Nigeria better and in doing that, we will not allow ourselves to be distracted.

“We believe that every part of this country must have a tertiary educational institution and it is only fair that Oke-Ogun zone has one.

“We believe that opportunities for our teaming youth to go to tertiary institutions must be provided. At the moment, we don’t have enough spaces and therefore a Federal University of Technology in Oke-Ogun will be a welcome idea.

“And I want to assure you that the President himself believes in fairness and justice. We will do our part and I want to assure you without sounding like the spokesperson for the president, the President will also play his role positively by the Grace of God.”

Earlier, spokesman for the delegation, Ahmed Raji SAN, said the courtesy call was to thank the Senate President for his support for the bill.

Raji said out of about 30 Federal institutions in Oyo State, none was cited in Oke-Ogun zone which has about 60 percent of the landmass and 10 out of the 33 Local Governments in the state.

“We want to plead with the Senate President to help us see to it that this bill is passed and not only for the bill to be signed into law but that the implementation is also done,” Raji said.