Sen. Kabiru Marafa, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), has expressed optimism that the changes in the leadership of the Senate Committees will inspire genuine reconciliation in the chamber.
Marafa, a member of the Unity Forum in the senate, stated this on Friday in Abuja while answering questions from State House correspondents, after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
The re-composition of the Senate Committees was one of the conditions offered by Unity Forum Senators for peace to return to the troubled assembly.
Marafa noted that the changes in the leaderships of Senate committees was part of the ongoing efforts by the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to address the fragmentation among its members in the senate.
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“I think the reshuffling of committees is nothing new in any parliament. Maybe what makes that of yesterday a little new is the circumstances that led to the emergence of the present leaderships and what followed.
“And in the last few days, the party (APC) has been on top of the situation, trying to reconcile its children.
“The APC caucus in the senate has been badly fragmented and the party wants to see an end to that.
“What (you saw) happened yesterday was as a result of the efforts the party has been putting in the last few days,’’
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Marafa, who has been an outspoken critic of Senate President Bukola Saraki, said he was not at loggerheads with the Senate leadership.
He said the senate president was one of his close associates and a senior in the chamber.
The senator also described as “a huge and heavy joke’’ the recent insinuation that the senate was contemplating impeaching President Buhari.
“You know in the legislature we crack a lot of jokes.
“Some light, some medium and some very heavy jokes and I think I will only describe that as a very heavy joke.
“But, nobody is contemplating that.
“It is not a possibility; it has never been done and God willing it will not happen in this assembly,’’ he said.
Marafa, who is representing Zamfara Central Senatorial District, said the state chapter of APC in Zamfara had waded into the crisis between the state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari and members of the state House of Assembly.
The senator called on Niger Delta militants to shun any act capable of worsening the living condition of Nigerians and embrace dialogue with government for peace to reign in the region. (NAN)