A week after certain senators raised their voices against one another over seating arrangements in the refurbished Red Chamber, Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno Central and Chief Whip of the Senate, expressed his disenchantment over dysfunctional facilities in the renovated complex.
Senator Ndume specifically dismissed the refurbished Red Chamber as a mere conference room.
Coming under Order 42 of the Senate Standing Rules, Akpabio maintained that some of the facilities in the Red Chamber were inadequate.
He said, “Mr. President, I rise to make disturbing observations on this supposedly renovated chamber through Order 42, which deals with personal privileges.
Since day one, precisely last Tuesday when we moved into this chamber that was supposed to have been renovated, there have been complaints here and there.
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First, there was the issue of seating arrangements, followed by echoing voices from microphones that are not even audible.
There are no voting devices, and the required facilities have not yet been provided. We need to correct all these anomalies for the Hallowed Chamber to be what it is supposed to be.”
In his response, President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio aligned himself with Senator Ndume’s observations. Akpabio, who recalled that the renovation work was done by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), not the National Assembly Complex, tasked the federal lawmakers to seek autonomy for the National Assembly complex.
He said, “This is not our contract and not even a National Assembly contract but that of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), the landlord of the National Assembly Complex.
Observations on inadequacies in the renovated chamber are welcome from time to time for required perfection, but what we should be aiming at in the long run is for us, as federal lawmakers, to have proper autonomy over the National Assembly Complex and not continue as tenants of the FCDA.”
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