David Mark, Senate President
Ike Ekwerenmadu, Deputy Senate President
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Speaker House of Representatives
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Nigeria’s National Assembly selects principal officers
Confidence Ijeh and Taofeeq Odunsi, Lagos
The Seventh Nigerian National Assembly has elected its principal officers it is first session on Monday.
The leaders were voted by the members of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Elected officers
In the senate, David mark was re-elected unopposed as president, while his deputy in the Sixth session of the National Assembly, Senator Ike Ekweremadu was also re-elected unopposed.
In the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, representing Kebbe/Tambuwal, Federal Constituency, Sokoto State, was elected speaker of the house after he won by 252 votes against Mulikat Akande-Adeola who got 90 votes both from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Waziri Tambuwal was the deputy Chief Whip of the Sixth session of the House of Representatives.
The deputy speaker of the house, Chukwuemeka Ihedioha, was elected unopposed. He was the Chief Whip of the sixth session of the house of representative.
Unanimous consensus
The return of Mark as the Senate President followed a motion moved by Senator Ndoma Egba (SAN) and seconded by Sen. Smart Adeyemi.
Mark became a unanimous candidate without opposition from 109 senators and as such there was no election to return him.
He was sworn in immediately by the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.
During his inaugural speech, Senator David mark expressed appreciation to the members for bestowing confidence in him and called on the members of the senate to work together as they were to play a major role in the development and transformation of Nigeria.
Task ahead
For Nigerians, the task ahead is quite challenging and enormous, as they are expected to do better to sustain Nigeria’s democratic values.
Nigerians had last year called for the reduction of the recurrent expenditure on the National Assembly, which they said was quite huge.
Nigerian’s President had in a statement at the PDP retreat said: “It is our responsibility to make positive impact on the lives of all our people and transform our country into a stronger, more secured and prosperous nation. “To achieve this task the party will rely on us to provide the needed leadership in the various states and at the federal level where we have been given the mandate to carry through executive and legislative agenda for good governance. It is my hope that this retreat will offer us the opportunity to discuss and develop appropriate strategies for effective.
Delivering dividend
A Nigerian Labour activist, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, said that legislators must be able to deliver dividends of democracy to the people of their constituencies and Nigeria as a whole.
This call came after the National and some state Assemblies held the inauguration of its members on Monday.
Aremu said, the legislators should know the feeling of the people first before making laws consequently. He advised that legislators must go back to their constituencies and ask what the people’s needs were.
The comrade sighted the scarcity and the high cost of widely use domestic gas popularly referred to as kerosene, as an example and stressed that the legislators should make sure they do anything to reduce the cost and ensure its availability to the people.
He also said the legislators should ensure to make laws that will improve socio-economic development and infrastructure, qualitative education, good health delivery and job opportunities, which he said were visible dividend of good governance.
Profile
David Mark
Born in Otukpo, a popular town in Benue State on April 8, 1948, Mark joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was privileged to contest elections to the Senate in 1999.
He was subsequently elected to be the representative for Benue South Senatorial District under the umbrella of the PDP during the Senatorial election of April 1999 in which he won gallantly.
He was sworn in as Senator of the Federal republic in June 1999 and 2003.
He served as the Chairman Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Member Senate Committee on Defence and Member Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.
In April 2007, David Mark was re-elected and on June 3, he was sworn-in as distinguished Senator for the 3rd consecutive time.
Analysts said this can only be an attestation of his acceptance by his constituents.
On June 5, Mark went through a keenly contested election on the floor of the Senate, in which he defeated his former Governor, for the exalted position of Senate President.
He was consequently sworn in as the president of the Sixth Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In addition he is currently Chairman, Senate Committee on selection and Chairman Joint National Assembly.
In the Senate, Mark has supported a number of bills.
These include the Anti-corruption bill, Niger-delta bill, Minimum wage bill and the Universal Primary Education bill.
While he was Chairman Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Mark initiated a strategy in conjunction with other stake holders, which has resulted in an improved image for the Nigerian police, as well as an enhanced pay package.
Senator Ike Ekweremadu
Ekweremadu was nominated in a motion moved by Sen. Zainab Kure (Niger PDP), who noted that the Senate under his dual leadership with Sen. David Mark brought stability to the sixth Senate which lasted for four years.
Ekweremadu's nomination was unanimously supported by 108 senators and was subsequently sworn-in by Alhaji Salihu Maikasuwa.
Ekweremadu, who came into the Senate in 2003, served in several committees before eventually becoming the Deputy Senate President on June 5, 2007.
The Deputy Senate President headed the constitution review committee of the National Assembly which successfully carried out the alteration of the 1999 constitution.
While in the Senate, Ekweremadu sponsored five member bills, co-sponsored
seven bills, moved five motions, co-sponsored two motions and he was the one who moved the motion that led to the swearing in of Goodluck Jonathan as President during former President Yar’Adua’s ill health.
Born in 1962 at Amachara Mpu in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State, Ekeremadu holds both Bachelors and Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1987.
On April 12, 2003 he was elected into the Nigerian Senate.
At one time he was the leading contender to become the South-East region candidate for the Senate presidency that year, but was replaced by Adolphus Wabara, who went on to be elected senate president.
In September 2003, as vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Information, Ekweremadu stated that the Senate would make a serious investigation into allegations of bribery levelled by Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister Malam Nasir el-Rufai.
Relations between el-Rufai and the senate continued to be hostile, and el-Rufai was eventually charged with corruption in 2008.
In 2005, the People's Democratic Party decided to limit the contest for Senate President to Enugu State. Ike Ekweremadu was beaten in the race by Sen. Kenechukwu Nnamani by 47 votes to 13.
In July 2006, as spokesman for the Southern Senators’ Forum, Ekweremadu denied charges that they had made an agreement to return power to the North in the 2007 elections.
Ekweremadu was returned in the April 29, 2007 Nigerian National Assembly election, and retained his position as deputy senate president.
In July 2007, Ekweremadu was instrumental in defusing objections to the controversial nomination of Ojo Maduekwe to a ministerial position.
Later that year, following a meeting between Ekweremadu and President Yar'Adua to discuss southeastern economic development the government announced plans to upgrade the Enugu Airport to an international airport.
In September 2009, Ekweremadu was named co-chairman of a committee to conduct the primary elections for the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate for Anambra State.
In September 2009, he was appointed to lead the Economic Community of West AfricanStates(ECOWAS) ad-hoc committee to work for the return of constitutional order in the Niger Republic.
Ekweremadu was re-elected as Senator for Enugu West in the April 2011 elections, gaining 112,806 votes.
The 109 and 360 senators and members of representatives elect have therefore been officially saddled with their responsibilities marking the beginning of the Seventh National Assembly of Nigeria.
NAN/Shakira
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