By Uche Mbah
Controversies continue to trail the appointment of Aids by the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, with allegations of querry from the executive arm . He was said to have lifted all Former President Bukola Saraki’s Aids into the nineth Senate as Senate presidential aids.
A group, the All Progressives Congress, APC, Stakeholders Forum had accused Lawan of appointing people who have a history of “insulting President Buhari” into office. They have allegedly pressurized Lawan to drop Festus Adedayo, a Tribune Columnist known for acerbic attacks on the APC government. He was dropped by Lawan barely twenty four hours after appointment.
There have been rumors of more pressures on him to drop more of the appointed Aids, regarded as Saraki boys, from the presidency, a different arm of the government, thereby raising questions about the independence of the Legislative arm. Saraki was the immediate past senate president of the Senate who decamped from the APC to the Peoples democratic Party, PDP, and had vehemently fought for the independence of the Legislative Arm of the Government.
Attempts by the Senate president to stand his grounds has generated much controversies.
One of the people that Lawan was under pressure to sack was Olu Onemola, his newly appointed media Aid. Unable to cope with the controversy he has been caught in, Onemola opted for the option of resignation.
This was contained in a memo to the senate President by the former Special Adviser, New Media.
“At this time, given my antecedents and the controversy this (appointment) has generated, I would respectfully like to be excused from taking up this national assignment”, he said.
“It is my hope that whoever does fill this role will build upon what we have started in terms of opening up the activities of the Nigerian Senate to the public”,
Lawan has been accused of being a rubber stamp senate President-rubber stamp to the executive. This he has always denied, claiming he only wants a smooth working relationship with the executive. His first attempt at choosing his own aids has been fraught with executive interference.
