NASS REPUBLIC: Nnamani’s call for peaceful coexistence. Two other stories, and a quote to remember

Last week, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Cooperation and Integration in Africa/NEPAD, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, charged Nigerians to live peacefully among themselves.

We selected two other stories from the National Assembly (NASS) within the week under review.

1. Nnamani’s call

Senator Nnamani, on December 23, urged Nigerians to respect each other’s religion as this would engender a harmonious, and peaceful coexistence in the country.

The Senator, who made the call in his goodwill message to mark this year’s Christmas season, noted that living peacefully would guarantee socio-economic and political development.

Nnamani’s admonition strikes at one of the major age-long challenges among Nigerians. Religious intolerance, anywhere in the world, no doubt, hampers the all-round development of any nation.

Sadly, the issue has become exacerbated under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, owing to various religious, and ethnically divisive policies.

While the admonition by Nnamani should also be echoed by other well-meaning Nigerians, the onus rests on him and his colleagues to leverage their legislative powers to foster policies that would help bridge the religious gap among Nigerians.

NASS MEMORY LANE

Who said;
“Today, everything is different. What we see is hopelessness, a situation whereby our children, brothers and sisters would be kidnapped along Kaduna road and nothing is happening. Today, people are being butchered as if they’re ordinary fowls. That’s very bad. We can’t even enter our farms.”

Answer: See end of post

Two other stories

2. Hoping for free, fair 2023 polls

On December 24, Hon. Dennis Idahosa, who represents Ovia Federal Constituency of Edo State in the House of Representatives, declared that the neutrality of President Muhammadu Buhari would give more credibility to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

READ ALSO:NASS REPUBLIC: Curtailing presidential powers. Two other stories, and a quote to remember

“I believe the neutrality of the President will give more credibility to INEC…” Idahosa stated this while addressing journalists in Benin City, Edo State capital.

Idahosa’s submission cannot be divorced from Buhari’s vow to make the 2023 elections credible, and the need for him to walk the talk.

Amidst Idahosa’s speech lies the need for a sustained drive towards a new political order in which the leadership recruitment process is well structured and deliberately designed to work for all Nigerians.

3. Oloriegbe’s denial

The Federal lawmaker representing Kwara Central Senatorial District of Kwara State, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, on December 18, denied claims that he was working against the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, and at the national level.

“I reiterated my unwavering commitment to the victory of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general elections and dispersed the rumour of me planning to work against the party as an expression of my grievances due to the unfavourable outcome I received from the party polls,” he stated in Ilorin.

Oloriegbe’s denials may be good for the APC but hardly erases the open grudges in the Kwara wing of the ruling party.

Keen observers of the polity acknowledge that insinuations he was working against the party may not be totally out of context.

This is especially so as he had been visibly aggrieved after losing his district’s senatorial primary election, forcing him into loggerheads with his State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, whom he had accused of hijacking the exercise.

Answer: Ndudi Elumelu

Elumelu, made the statement on October 10, 2022, when he spoke at the presidential flag-off of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital.

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