How I escaped banana peels in 6th Senate – Mark

Posted by admin Legislature, Senate Sunday, June 5th, 2011

President of the sixth Senate, Senator David Mark, has disclosed the secret behind his survival in the Upper Legislative Chamber of the National Assembly, saying he allowed national interest, unity, cohesion and team spirit to dictate his actions rather than personal goals.

Speaking at a parley with Northern Senators Forum of the sixth Senate session at the weekend, Senator Mark while thanking the legislators for their support and confidence, however, said that the success achieved by the Senate was as a result of their collective efforts.

He specifically noted that it was the resolve of the Senate to select a few items in the 1999 Constitution for amendment rather than a holistic approach that resulted in the breakthrough. According to Senator Mark, “when I came in 2007, I promised to be open, transparent, honest and committed to the ideals of national unity. I’ m a team player and I put the cards on the table. There was mutual respect between me and my colleagues. We built confidence and trusted each other.

So, there was no room for the dreaded banana peels.” Senator Mark assured that if given the opportunity to lead the seventh Senate billed to be inaugurated today (Monday), he would do more to impact positively on the lives of the ordinary Nigerian. As a means towards achieving the set goal, Senator Mark promised to lay more emphasis on oversight functions to ensure that ministries, departments and agencies implement Appropriation Acts to the latter, saying that whatever bottlenecks that are found on the way would be erased.

He noted that Standing Committees of the Senate would be mandated to physically visit ministries, departments and agencies including and sites to verify implementation of budgets. He appealed to the executive arm of government to present annual budgets early enough between August and September every year to give the legislature ample opportunity to do a thorough job on it before passage into law.

Earlier, Chairman of the NSF Senator Umaru Dahiru, noted the challenges faced by the northern region particularly the political leadership occasioned by the exit of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and desertification required a combined and collective effort to tackle. Senator Dahiru assured that the North is committed to Nigeria unity thus, would do all it can to protect it.

In his speech, former governor of Niger State who was the chairman on the occasion, Alhaji Abdulkadir Kure, reminded Senators of their strategic roles they occupy as statesmen of the nation which they should rely upon at critical times always. Senator Ahmed Lawal of Yobe State was named the NSF’s Sectretary for the incoming sevent Senate. He replaced former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed.

-Sunwp_posts