The Senate today held its valedictory session to mark the end of the
7th Senate Assembly. At the session which was well attended by past
Senate Presidents and Senators, the Majority leader, Senator Victor
Ndoma-Egba said out of the 591 bills brought before them in the last 4
years, only 123 bills were passed. The 46 passed in less than 10 minutes
yesterday is included in the 123 bills passed in the 4 year period of
the assembly.
In his remark, the Senate President, Senator David Mark said he
takes full responsibility for all the commissions and omissions
recorded in the 7th Senate Assembly where he served as a leader.
In his speech, Senator Mark said the abduction of the Chibok girls remains a scar on our national psyche.
“I take full responsibility for all the
commissions and omissions in the past four years. The last four years
have been defining for our country in many respects,” he said. “The
country was battered on all sides by security challenges that threatened
the very existence of our society. The rise in insurgency and the
ruthless mayhem unleashed on Nigerians by the Boko Haram sect resulted
in the highest number of lives and property, which our nation has lost
in our recent history. What was most horrifying was not only their
wanton destruction but their disregard for human lives particularly
those of women and children. The abduction of the Chibok school girls
still remains a scar on our national psyche. There is no doubt that the
Boko Haram crisis exposed serious cracks in our security system,
challenged our unity, threatened our future and seriously dented our
international image. We considered and approved emergency rule when we
thought it was needed and declined request for extension when we thought
that such an extension could not stem the tide of terrorism and
insurgency in the affected states. Happily, the Nigerian armed forces
have made significant gains in the fight against insurgency. The
security challenges we faced in the last four years were not restricted
to terrorism but included political violence, extremism, communal
conflicts, militancy in the Niger Delta, maritime insecurity and
transnational crimes. In all these, we gave maximum support to the
government. We passed the bill for an act to amend the Terrorism
(prevention) Act 2012, and we approved a loan of U.S.$1 billion for the
government to procure arms and equipment needed to tackle security
challenges in the country.”he said
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