Seek Counsel From Past Senate Presidents On Public Conduct, Group Slams Akpabio

The Coalition for Parliamentary Democracy, CPD, has advised the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to seek advice from past holders of the office on public conduct.

The CPD says the mannerisms currently displayed by Sen.Akpabio while presiding in the chamber shows an alarming lack of expected decorum, carriage and knowledge on parliamentary practices and procedures.

The group notes that Senate Presidents that preceded Akpabio in office like Ahmad Lawan, Bukola Saraki, David Mark conducted the affairs of the institution in reverence and respect which the office demands, expressing concerns that Sen. Akpabio’s actions and utterances as Senate President are ridiculing the institution.

Dr. Menike Johnson, the CPD’s National Coordinator, in a statement issued in Abuja and made available to newsmen, frowned at the pettiness of Akpabio in dragging his personal animosity to the floor of the Senate using the privilege of the Chair, the symbol of the parliament authority.

“If he (Akpabio) sought the advice of his predecessors in that office, he would have been counseled that the Chair of the Senate President in the chamber is not designed for personal scuffles.

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“It is not a seat for personal aggrandizement or peddling of cheap rumours and lies.

“The expectations of Nigerians is that Akpabio as the Senate President will provide for legislative instruments that will help President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to solve economic challenges confronting the nation”, the statement stated

It will be recalled that Sen. Akpabio had on Thursday alleged that he made Mr Udom Emmanuel Governor of Akwa Ibom State and he did nothing for him for eight years.

Earlier, the Senate President was also quoted as advising the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, to “ignore” the Senator representing the FCT, Senator Ireti Kingibe.

Akpabio’s history of careless comments on the floor of the red chambers had previously seen him falsely accusing Governors of receiving 30billion naira palliatives from the Federal Government with nothing to show for it, a statement he would later recant.

The CPD described such utterances as “reckless, infantile and unbefitting of the office of the Senate President”