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President Bola Tinubu will attend the first retreat of the 10th National Assembly scheduled to hold from 19 to 22 October in Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria.
President Tinubu will have a conversation with the lawmakers on the reformation of taxes and how to increase the internally generated revenue in all sectors.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, disclosed this to journalists on Wednesday after he paid a courtesy visit to Mr Tinubu at the Presidential Villa.
“I came to inform the president of the first 10th Assembly retreat which is taking place tomorrow in Akwa Ibom State and also to solicit his support towards ensuring representation at the retreat and he has graciously done that.
“And I told him some of the things we are going to discuss, – task reform and ways of ensuring the generation of revenue for him to work for Nigerians.
“He needs to be informed that the Senate will not be available in Abuja. We are moving the Senate all the way to Akwa Ibom for the next four days,” he said.
Mr Akpabio added that after the retreat, he will join the delegation of Nigeria to Angola to attend the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting.
“Thereafter, I will be travelling personally to Angola to attend the Inter-Parliamentary Union. So, before he sees me, it will probably take another nine days. So, I needed to inform him,” he said.
Mr Akpabio said all senators are united and that there is no internal crisis in the upper chamber.
He said the rancour that had been reported so far since the beginning of the 10th Senate was in the interest of the country.
The Senate president assured that his leadership will ensure that rancour in the Senate will not aggravate to the point where lawmakers will be throwing chairs at each other.
“In the parliament, sometimes you disagree to agree. We are all working in one accord. There is no problem at all. Even if some people disagree with some of the happenings in the Senate, still, it is only the majority decision that is going to prevail and parliament is like that.
“But we will never get to the point of throwing chairs. We will never get to that point. The Senate is too mature, full of mature people. So, if we have a disagreement, we immediately go into a closed session, resolve it and come out smiling.
“We are politicians, no permanent hatred but permanent interest. That interest is in 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,” he said.
Pandemonium broke out at the plenary on Tuesday after the Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, complained that the legislative proceedings being led by Mr Akpabio were not always in conformity with the Senate rules and regulations.
The senate president immediately interjected and ruled the chief whip out of order. The action made Mr Ndume angrily leave the Senate chamber for his office.
However, the chief whip later explained in a media interview that he left the chamber to pray.
Last week, Mr Ndume and Mohammed Onawo (PDP, Nasarawa) also complained during plenary that the senate president was ambushing the upper chamber to hastily pass bills without following due process
