Nigeria’s Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of senators engaging in a physical fight, no matter the level of disagreement among them.
“In the parliament, sometimes you disagree to agree,” Akpabio said in a statement after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. “We are all working in one accord. There is no problem at all. Even if some people disagree on some of the happenings in the senate, still, it is only the majority decision that is going to prevail and parliament is like that.”
Akpabio’s statement comes after there were reports of tension and disagreement among senators over some issues. In particular, there have been reports of some senators being unhappy with the leadership of the Senate.
However, Akpabio dismissed the reports, saying that the Senate is too mature to engage in a physical fight.
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“We will never get to a point of throwing chairs,” he said. “We will never get to that point. The senate is too mature, full of matured people, so, if we have a disagreement, we immediately go into a closed session, resolve it and come out smiling.”
Akpabio also said that the Senate is committed to supporting the President and his administration.
“We are politicians, no permanent hatred but permanent interest,” he said. “That interest is is the interest of the nation. To support the President, support his administration in legislation, oversights functions to succeed, in order to move the country forward and that is what we have been doing and that is what we are committed to doing.”
Akpabio also announced that the Senate will be holding a retreat in Akwa Ibom State on Thursday. The retreat will focus on task reform and ways of ensuring the generation of revenue for the government.
