– Members of the Lagos state House of Assembly are not happy with the Nigerian Senate and they are making this known in a letter to the upper chamber
– The senators earned the anger of their colleagues in Lagos for rejecting the special status bill that should have favoured the state
The Bukola Saraki-led Senate has been warned against giving the impression that there is a special hatred for Lagos state.
The warning came from the state House of Assembly just days after the upper legislative chamber threw away a bill sponsored by Oluremi Tinubu seeking to accord Lagos a special status having been the former capital of the country.
Angered by the action of the Senate, the Lagos lawmakers warned that the state should not be provoked to commence fierce agitation for recognition as was being experienced in some parts of the country.
In a motion raised by Bisi Yusuff under ‘matter of urgent public importance’, the House also resolved to write to the Senate for a reconsideration of the bill without sentiments.
Yusuff had noted that the senators had no reason for rejecting the bill adding that most of them have their families and properties in the state.
To him, the action of the senators is lamentable, especially with the fact that it does not get any derivation despite being the commercial nerve centre of the country.
Most of the state lawmakers agreed that the rejection is a bad signal from the senate and capable of leading to the kind of situation prevailing in the Niger Delta.
A PDP member in the House, Jude Idimogun, supported the call for a special status and condemned its rejection by the senate.
He called for the representation of the bill and appealed to Senator Tinubu to lobby her colleagues for it to be passed, adding that Lagos is unique.
While summing the debate, Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, who commended his colleagues for their concern on the issue, urged them to reach out to senators they know and make them see reasons to pass the bill into law.
“Lagos is important to all Nigerians because apart from being the commercial nerve-centre of the country, the struggle for independence and all political developments started here.
“We have been on this issue for years,” he said while commending Senator Tinubu for her determination, commitment and devotion to get things done in the state.
He also urged the senator not to relent in this drive, just as he cautioned the senators to tread carefully, adding: “They must not instigate Lagos to behave otherwise, their attitude shows that they don’t want Lagos in Nigeria, and their action, as pointed out by a member here, is capable of giving rise to what is happening in the Niger Delta now.”
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