Goodluck Jonathan may no longer have a grip on the upper legislative
chamber of the Senate.
According to Thisday report, some senators of the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, on Tuesday threatened to impeach President
Jonathan for working against their political interests in their
various states.
It was gathered that the lawmakers also vowed to team up with the
House of Representatives to impeach the president if doing so
eventually becomes an option they would have to explore.
This decision was the fallout of the closed-door session held by the
PDP caucus in the Senate in protest of their losses at last Saturday's
congresses of the ruling party in their various states.The senators
are alleging that they lost out because of the alleged betrayal by the
president whom they said they had supported prior to his emergence as
acting president on February 9, 2009 up to this last weekend.
Investigation revealed that in a bid to show their bitterness towards
the president, the senators boycotted legislative activities on
Tuesday by adjourning sitting without considering a single item on the
Order Paper.
The senators also vowed to repeat the same during plenary on
Wednesday, threatening that the trend would continue indefinitely
until the president addressed their grievances.The action is, among
others, meant to frustrate the consideration and prompt passage of the
2015 budget and Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), as they threatened to
also shut down the government in pursuit of their personal goals.One
of the aggrieved senators that briefed journalists after the meeting,
said with their resolve to abandon legislative business indefinitely,
the president is not only losing the House of Representatives but has
also lost the Senate.
"You are aware that we adjourned sitting today. That is what we will
continue to do. President Goodluck Jonathan has lost the Senate.
"Since he has left the PDP structures in the hands of the governors,
let the governors also come and do our jobs. We are going to shut the
government.
"What is it that the president asked that we've not given to him? We
are going to show solidarity with the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal. We will not sit again. There
will be no consideration of the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure
Framework) and there will be no budget. We may also begin his
impeachment.
"When we invoked the doctrine of necessity, we even proceeded to give
him the full option. We did the same thing on the state of emergency.
But now, he has lost the Senate.
"By the time the House of Representatives resumes on December 3, most
of the PDP members in the House would have lost their return bids and
they will quickly move to APC and populate the party," the senator
told newsmen.
It was gathered that Tuesday's session was presided over by Deputy
Senate President Ike Ekweremadu as the Senate President David Mark was
said to be attending the National Council of State meeting at the
Presidential Villa.
However, the senators who said they had the full backing of their APC
counterparts in their resolve to shut down the chamber, added that if
Mark opts to stall the move, he would have to be abandoned and be left
to preside over an empty chamber.
It was also learnt that most of the PDP senators whose fate has been
sealed are already knocking at the doors of the opposition All
Progressives Congress (APC), asking to be allowed to fly the party's
flag in the next election.
Another source informed that the Senate resolved to shut down
legislative business because governors have been empowered by the PDP
headquarters to deny them re-election tickets.
The source informed that the Senate would in the next few days show
openly its solidarity with House of Representatives Speaker Aminu
Waziri Tambuwal, whose defection from PDP to the APC has caused a huge
row.
He insisted that they are prepared to fight their battle with any
weapon open to them, wondering why the President and first-time PDP
governors are given automatic tickets and legislators are not.
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