By Seyi Babalola
From the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio came clarifications, that the amendment to the House Rules which took place on Tuesday was out to save his neck and prevent alleged moves to get him impeached.
Recall that many Nigerians have said the amendment to the House Rules which was moved by the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, was to prevent impeachment moves against the Senate President.
But Akpabio, said this was far from the truth, adding that the need to sanitise the leadership recruitment process at the upper chamber informed the decision and that the Senate acted within the remit of its powers as it has powers to make laws to regulate its internal affairs in line with best global practices.
The Senate President who was represented by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Mr Esene Onyibo, at the seventh conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), which held at the Continental Hotel, Abuja, said the amendment was rather to sanitise the process and prevent the rowdiness that almost marred the inauguration of the ninth assembly.
He said what the Senate merely did was to amend the law guiding the emergence of its principal officers to give preference to returning senators who would be able to deploy experience and tact in the conduct of legislative businesses of the upper legislative house.
Akpabio, said just as orderliness is observed in the selection and election as school prefects, one should expect that election into the most important legislative office in the land, should not be left to all comers.
According to him, by amending the rules to reflect leaving it for returning senators, the amendment should, rather than being condemned, promote competitive spirit among senators to do things which would encourage their constituencies to re-elect them into the red chamber to qualifies them for any of the principal officers’ position in the Senate.
Akpabio also cleared the air on his intervention in saving the life of a ministerial designate, Abbas Balarabe, who collapsed in the Senate chamber during his screening on Wednesday.
He said “the Senate President was heard shouting the name of the inhouse medical officers to bring water and sugar and not crowd the exhausted nominee, when the incident had happened.
He said though many Nigerians are condemning the Senate President on the social media and asking when he became a medical doctor, but added that the timely response might have been contributed to restoring Hon. Balarabe back to life and good health.
Enyibo explained that the Balarabe issue clearly demonstrated the caring heart of the Senate President who marshalled men to quickly intervene by doing what really matter at critical moment to resuscitate Balarabe rather than add to the confusion that could have led to avoidable fatality.
He urged online publishers to stick to the ethics of the profession by making sure that they stick to the reportage of facts without bias.
Earlier, the Minister for Information and National Orientation Alhaji Mohammed Idris Malagi has challenged Nigerian journalists to partner with the federal government in resetting the values that has been gravely eroded and restore the trust quotient in government.
“No matter what, let us join other compatriots in seeing the cup as half full instead of seeing it as half empty,” Malagi urged the online publishers.