From James Awano, Abuja
Senator Kabiru Gaya has said that the National Assembly on resumption would investigate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the one week postponement of the 2019 general elections.
Few hours to the February 16 commencement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, INEC postponed the elections and governorship and state’s houses of Assembly by one week citing logistics issues amongst others.
Gaya, who spoke with State House correspondents Over the weekend, also disclosed why Kano people voted for President Muhammadu Buhari, even though the turnout for the elections was low.
Why assuring that the next Senate will work with President Buhari in the interest of the nation stated “I was happy when they shifted the elections and I said still after shifting the election we will call them and we will investigate the INEC for shifting the election because it caused a poor turnout. We will find out the reason – if it is funding, we gave them enough funding, if it was issue of security, the security agencies were ready.
“So why should INEC shift the elections? We are going to investigate that when we come back after the governorship election. But sadly, generally they did what they could do, I could say, it’s a pass mark.” he said
Asked the kind of Senate Nigerians should expect in the ninth Assembly, Senator Gaya said “A humble Senate, a vibrant senate and a Senate that will work with Mr President.”
Gaya also thanked almighty Allah for the President’s life, strength and ability to contest for a second term and win the election with a very good wide margin.
On why Kano people voted for Buhari, he said “I remember, when I was inspecting one of the roads in Nigeria here, at that time, President Buhari was abroad, I said President Buhari will, insha Allah, commission that road in his first time and also in second term, he will do the second part of the road. People doubted me, but thank God, God has done it – President Buhari has ran for election and he has won the election.
“I am not surprise for him winning the election because he has done so much for this country. Take example, in terms of road, I am the Chairman, Senate Committee on Works, so I know that the budget for the 2014 before President Buhari came in was N22 billion. But when Buhari came into office the budget moved up to N220 billion and you can see now the budget is between N300 billion to N400 billion in 2019.
“Therefore, the roads that were neglected for nineteen years are now motorable. Also, agricultural, the importation of rice has dropped from 100 percent to only five percent.
“So I could say that I am happy President Buhari is back and the election was peaceful and Kano State has delivered even though the turnout was very low. I believe most of the problem was that INEC shifted the elections and people thought that the election would be shifted again and they couldn’t come out to vote. We had just about 30-40 percent turnout all over the country.
“But be that, Kano has delivered, we had the highest number of votes and I think we could say that we are part of the determining factors for President Muhammadu Buhari reelection because he has really done so much for us – the dualisation of Kano-Abuja road and the railway project and so on.
“We are very happy that president Buhari has done that and we believe we will do better. We from the National Assembly, I assure you, I am coming in as a senator for the forth term – 16 years I am one of the few ranking senators in the senate and I thank God for being in the senate.
“Therefore, we will give President Buhari all the cooperation that is needed so that we can have a smooth ride, a smooth process, a smooth passage of the budget, a smooth oversight and a relation between the executive and the legislature. We hope by God’s grace we will give him that support.” he said
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