Seriake Dickson, senator representing Bayelsa west, on
Tuesday confronted Aishatu Dahiru, his colleague from Adamawa, over the latter’s
claim regarding the size of his state.
While speaking at the senate plenary session, Dahiru said
the population of Mubi is bigger than that of the entire Bayelsa.
She made the comment to justify the need for the creation of
Federal Medical Centre, Mubi.
Presenting a bill on the proposed hospital, the senator said
the population of Mubi north and south LGAs is “very much higher than Bayelsa
state’s eight local government areas.”
“Nonetheless, this town has suffered from government neglect
in terms of federal presence especially in the area of tertiary healthcare
delivery,” she added.
This did not go down well with Dickson who immediately
kicked against her submission, arguing that the size of Bayelsa is bigger than
that of many states.
“In my senatorial district, it will take me four days to go
round. In my local government, Sagbama, it will take me three days to go
round,” the former governor said.
“I just felt I should rise up to enlighten the sponsor of this
bill and, by so doing, the rest of the country.
“When people talk about population, they should be careful
because if you go deep and ask who conducted the census, who verified what and
what were counted, who are the residents and how justifiable, you would
shudder.”
At this point, Senate President Ahmad Lawan intervened and
cautioned Dickson against digressing from the main argument.
“The discussion is not on the population of Bayelsa or
population census conducted before; we should rather concentrate on the main
focus, which is on the establishment of a Federal Medical Centre,” he said.
Notwithstanding, Dickson reiterated his point that “debates
and submissions must be based on verifiable facts.”
“Dahiru referred to population figures which are not
verifiable. The basis is not explained,” he said.
“I only rose to enlighten and contribute without prejudice
to the merits or demerits of the bill; that the factual premise that she has
put forward as a reason or one of the reasons why this bill should be
considered is faulty.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com