President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, blamed the leadership of the ninth senate, led by Senator Ahmed Lawan, and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) for alleged poor supervision of the renovation of the red chamber.
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Similarly, Chief Whip of the senate, Ali Ndume, condemned the renovation work as poorly executed, despite billions of naira spent on the contract
The federal government had awarded the contract for the renovation of the National Assembly complex to Visible Construction Limited for N42 billion.
The complex is maintained and managed by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and has been under renovation for about two years.
The lawmakers held plenary at a temporary chamber in the senate wing of the National Assembly while the renovation was ongoing.
The senators, however, resumed plenary in the permanent chamber yesterday after they returned from their four weeks Easter and Eid-el-Fitr holiday.
Upon resumption, some of the senators, especially the ranking senators, expressed displeasure at sitting arrangements in the renovated chamber.
Akpabio blamed the irregularities in the renovated chamber on the leadership of the ninth senate, led by Lawan, and FCDA.
Akpabio said the renovation contract was supervised and managed by the previous senate leadership and authorities of FCDA, saying, “In the sitting arrangement, 99.9 per cent arrangement had been made.
“This is not our contract; it was a contract that was awarded in the ninth senate. It is the FCDA that renovated it. If we have a complaint, we have to channel it to the FCDA.”
The senate president also stressed the need for National Assembly autonomy. He stated, “We shall discuss in the future the need to have autonomy. After 25 years, the National Assembly should be able to own property.”
Ndume complained that the structural view, chairs, speakers and other equipment in the chamber were not properly fixed.
The chief whip said the renovated permanent chamber looked like a conference room and not a chamber where legislations are made.
Ndume stated, “This is not a chamber, it is like a conference room. You will not even know that it is me, Ndume that is speaking, so also when the leader was speaking.”
The senator noted that the sitting arrangement and fixing of chairs in the renovated chamber also required correction.
He added, “We need to correct this. We need to change so many things. Like the sitting row, if you want to stand up, you will have to use tactics or strategy to stand up or sit down.”
Ndume also listed lack of electronic devices for voting as one of the challenges in the renovated chamber.
He said, “There is no voting device here, if we are to vote electronically, the facilities are not there, but we had that previously.
“There is no clock here for senators to see the time. Okay, they are trying to show me and I am looking for it, it is not even clear. There used to be a big one.”
The chief whip also complained that microphones and speakers in the chamber were not audible. He specifically observed that the speakers were echoing lawmakers’ voices, who were contributing to discussions on the floor of the senate.
Ndume stated, “This is a serious observation. If you play back the record, you cannot identify Akpabio’s voice, you have to listen hard, but the audio is supposed to be very clear.
“Most importantly, these seats were better. You have where you can put your documents and conveniently make your contributions, but right now the chamber is echoing.
“Lastly, the sitting arrangements, the rules clearly states that it is strictly on seniority. You have some seniors misplaced. All these should be corrected.”
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