![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Senate-Presidency-Borno-citizens-back-Ndume-reject-Gov-Shettimas-support-for-Lawan.png\")
<\/p>\nAbdullahi, who made the remark when he appeared at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, said everybody is free to vote and be voted for in a democratic setting.<\/p>\n
\u201dDemocracy is a contest and there is beauty in the contest and that is what I told Ndume about an hour ago, that we appreciate that you are making democracy in Nigeria to really work.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt gives credibility to the entire process. If we had just gone and \u2026.already, people are saying that we have been annointed, we have been stampeded into that; that is a very wrong perception,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said Lawan had become formidable, going by his contribution in the Senate being the Senate leader in the 8th assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201dUnder normal parliamentary practice, if a party wins an election, the leader of that party in the Senate, without any contest, moves in and take over the leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201dThat is what happens in the United States when democrats won the election in the House of Representatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Abdullahi said the same thing was applicable in the British system of government.<\/p>\n
\u201dSo under normal circumstances, we stand on a very strong position, and they know us and we know them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the group would have had a big challenge if their candidate was incompetent.<\/p>\n
\u201dIf our candidate was that bad, since we started this contest late February, the issue would have come out.<\/p>\n
\u201dIf he was corrupt or has stolen money, it would have come out in the public domain.<\/p>\n
\u201dBut the fact that it hasn\u2019t, it means that we are on good course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said although Ndume has his own agenda which he wants to advance, Lawan\u2019s acceptability is overwhelming.<\/p>\n
Abdullahi enjoined Nigerians to note the integrity and the sincerity of purpose of the 9th Senate under Lawan\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe want Nigerians to really keep an eye on us. If we win this election, we will add value to legislative activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the independence of the legislature would be guaranteed while relationship with the executive would be strengthened\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chairman, Ahmad Lawan Campaign Group, Sen. Yahaya Abdullahi, on Monday, said that Sen. Ali Ndume\u2019s resolve to contest for the Senate president\u2019s position has given credibility to the entire process. Abdullahi, who made the remark when he appeared at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, said everybody is free to vote and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/108316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}