Sagay’s comments on senate unfortunate, says Waku

An elder statesman, Joseph Kennedy Waku has chided the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), for condemning the eighth Senate, saying his comments showed that he (Sagay) was selfish and ignorant of the legislature.

Waku told journalists in Makurdi yesterday that Prof. Shagay’s over exaggerated opinion of the Senate meant that even as a professor of law, he lacked competence when it comes to legislative matters.

He said Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara became the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives in the most democratic manner of non-partisan participation for the first time without party or executive influence.

His words: “I feel prof. Sagay, as a renowned professor of law, does not have monopoly of knowledge and should not condemn the Senate in its entirety.

“He should be teaching the younger ones what they need to know rather than display bias, which can make him lose credibility among well meaning Nigerians.

“There are certain things in law he knows and am not challenging him on the basis of law, but to speak for the executive as if he has become the spokesman of the federal executive, in my view, is not right”.

“He should know that once you become a senator, you divorce yourself from partisanship and become a Nigerian lawmaker for which I believe the senate has been doing it best.”

Waku, who is also the pro- chancellor and chairman governing board, Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, insisted that since the fourth republic up to the eight assembly, there has not been a genuine democratically elected leadership of the national assembly like the current one that came into existence in June 2015.

He challenged Sagay to go back to his law books to be abreast of the workings of the legislature and marry his knowledge with the current situation in the country before passing ill-advised comments against the senate.

“As a constitutional lawyer that he is, I would expect him to challenge the issues that he has raised in court so as to get the national assembly on its fit rather than cry wolf where there is none,” he added.