BOOING: It’s sad that legislators didn’t respect Buhari’s age, ex-Senate Leader says

The immediate past Senate Majority Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) has criticised National Assembly members over their conduct during the 2019 budget presentation by President Muhammadu Buhari.

During the joint session, some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) booed and interrupted the president while their All Progressives Congress (APC) counterparts hailed him.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Ndoma-Egba, who is the APC senatorial candidate in Cross River, said the development was resentful and a show of disrespect for age.

Recalling his time in the Senate, he said, “We have not had that kind of experience in Nigeria before – we respect age. It should worry us that happened at all. It is a cultural irreverence for age.

“We all come from the background of culture of respect. No matter the level of anger, no matter the disconnect between the National Assembly and the Executive, there should be respect for age. It should have been better managed on the floor of the National Assembly,” he said.

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The chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission said the people of the South would vote massively for Buhari in 2019 because of unprecedented development his administration had brought to the region.

Citing Cross River, he said, “In 2015, President Buhari got a paltry 28,000 votes and despite the low level of support, see what he has done for Cross River. Cross River remains the only state that he has visited twice. The state is well represented in government. We have the Chief Justice of Nigeria even though he is not a politician. You can’t run away from the fact that he became Chief Justice under President Buhari – anything could have happened.

“The Head of Service of the Federation is from Cross River state, the Auditor General of the Federation is from the state, the Minister of the Niger Delta, the NDDC Chairman, the Special Adviser on Prosecution are all from that state in addition to chairmen of boards, all for a paltry 28,000.

“What was the record under PDP? The best we ever had as a state under the PDP was when we had Kanu Agabi as a Minister and Senator Liyel Imoke as Special Adviser. These are arguments that will be taken to the field in Cross River. It will be the height of ingratitude for any Cross Riverian not to vote for President Buhari and it will be an uncharitable ingratitude.”

Ndoma-Egba added that the delay in the beginning of the APC campaign would not affect the fortunes of the party in the general elections.

“I don’t think it is the length of the campaign that matters, but the intensity. The opposition has been campaigning and we have seen the impact. We still have time for the campaign. Don’t forget that this is the party in government and it will rely largely on its records which are there to speak for us,” he said.

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