Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has congratulated Senator Ahmed Lawan and Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila on their victories as President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.
Governor Sanwo-Olu described their victories as results of focus, hard work, resilience and team spirit, saying that the keenly contested elections in both chambers of the National Assembly are a clear indication of deepening democratic culture in Nigeria.
According to him, “We should not lose sight of the fact that the elections into the leadership positions of the Upper and Lower Legislative Chambers of the National Assembly is a clear manifestation that Nigeria’s democracy is growing in leaps and bounds.
”Recall that in the past, such elections were either not as transparent as what we witnessed today or emergence of the leaders were remotely controlled from outside the hallow chambers. But today, the National Assembly members participated and chose their leaders in the full glare of millions of Nigerians. This must be commended’’, Sanwo-Olu said.
The Lagos State Governor who watched proceedings of the two Chambers live at the National Assembly complex in Abuja advised the newly elected principal officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives to see their new positions as a heavy responsibility because according to him, “Leadership itself is responsibility’’.
He urged Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila to work closely with the Executive arm of the Government for speedy and efficient service delivery to Nigerians.
“Nigerians are looking up to the ruling class, regardless of who is at the top or what political parties we represent. The average Nigerian is interested in the quick passage of the Appropriation bill and other bills that will have direct positive impact on his life’’, Sanwo-Olu stated.
The Governor also urged the opposition party to close ranks with the victors in the interest of all Nigerians, noting that politicking is over and now is time to deliver dividends of democracy to the citizens.
Meanwhile, Senator Ali Ndume (APC-Borno), who lost the Senate Presidency to Lawan has described the election as ”free and fair.”
Ndume, who made the remark while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the poll in Abuja, said the election was not a fight but a contest.
Lawan polled 79 votes to emerge the winner while Ndume scored 28 votes out of the total votes of 107.
He said his involvement in the contest had given the process a credibility.
“Now, my colleagues have decided, but whatever result is, the election was free and fair which is what we have to do.
“I hope that the party will also agree with me that what I did was to insist on doing the right thing in the interest of democracy.
“I think the right thing has been done and my fate has been decided by the Almighty Allah this date through my colleagues,” he said.
The lawmaker, who believed that only God knew what He had in stock for him, said he did his best.
“I begged Allah and my colleagues for the position of the senate president and I did my best in order to achieve this,” he said.
Ndume, who said that he had accepted his fate, pledged to support Lawan to succeed.
“This is so because his success is our success,” he said. He said the new senate president had all that it takes to lead the 9th Senate.
He also said the emergence of Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege as the deputy senate president had shown the beauty of democracy.
“I have confidence in him and all we need to do is to cooperate as one among equal. I like his energy and resilience and I hope he will make a very good deputy senate president,” he said.
On how he felt about the election, he said: “I am comfortable with it. I was one of the first that went to congratulate my colleagues. May be you don’t know me; I am okay. I will sleep very well today and you know, I was looking forward to this day because I worked very hard,” he said.