Nigeria's Democracy in Danger - Seite 2

Notes to editors:

• Dr Abdullahi is a Ph. D holder in Agricultural Science.  He is first-term Senator representing Niger South District in the North Central zone of Nigeria.  He is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, a position that makes him the official spokesman of the Senate.
  
• The Nigerian Senate is the Upper chamber of the bi-camera legislature of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It has a total of 109 members with three members representing each of the 36 states of Nigeria and 1 member from the Federal Capital, Abuja. The Senate is headed by the President of the Senate who presides at the plenary. He is elected by a simple majority of Senators at the inauguration of the Senate and can be removed by a two-third of the members. The Deputy Senate President is similarly elected and acts in presiding capacity in the absence of the Senate president. In addition to these two, the Senate has eight other principal officers - majority leader, deputy majority leader, chief whip, deputy chief whip, minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip and deputy minority whip. The current President of the Senate is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which has a total of 58 members, while his Deputy belongs to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with 44 members. A third party, the Labour Party has one member, while six seats are currently vacant. The Senate requires two-third majority to take most decisions.
• Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki is a 53 year old President of the Senate. He was a two-term Governor in Nigeria's North-Central, Kwara State from 2003 to 2011. He was elected to the Senate for the first time in 2011 and appointed chairman of the Committee on Environment and Ecology.  In the wake of rising national concern over fuel subsidy payments, he initiated the motion that exposed the massive fraud that characterised subsidy payments in the country.  In 2014, he led six state Governors, some Senators and House of Representatives members out of the then ruling party, PDP to join other parties in forming the APC, which subsequently won the 2015 Presidential election.