PDP stalling bills at Senate– Tinubu

The senator representing the Lagos Central Senatorial District in the Senate, Senator Remi Tinubu on Sunday said Peoples Democratic Party senators have been frustrating bills sponsored by the senators, who belong to the All Progressives Congress, and thereby hindering progress in the country.

She said she wouldn’t want to return to a PDP-dominated Senate.

Tinubu, who is the wife of APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said this in Lagos while speaking to journalists during a press parley to mark her third anniversary at the Senate.

She said, “The activities in the Senate have been depressing. The Senate that has PDP members in the majority is not an environment I want to go back to. I don’t want to go back there except APC becomes that majority.”

Tinubu also criticised President Goodluck Jonathan for campaigning for the PDP governorship candidate in Ekiti State, while the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State, were yet to be rescued.

On the ongoing crisis between the Lagos State government and the students of the Lagos State University over hike in school fees, Tinubu said the students should pay the new school fees to enable the government improve infrastructure and quality of education in the school.

She added that the Lagos State government would not back down despite the protests.

She said, “As a teacher and an educationist, I believe that fees should be paid. When you send you children abroad, school fees are high. Schools are never for free. That is why there is student loan. We are getting there. The government of Lagos State is not heartless. The state government wants LASU to compete globally.

“The students need to pay that amount. Government is not going to go back. It’s not like University of Lagos, that they quickly reverted. You can see that Fashola has not commented. Good education anywhere in the world cost money.”

Tinubu used the occasion to give account of her three years at the Senate. She noted that she has so far, sponsored three bills and co-sponsored two motions on issues affecting her constituency.

She listed the bills she sponsored as the National Social Security Agency Bill, 2011, a bill for Act to Amend the Labour Act CAP LI LFN 2004 and for other matters, and the Lagos State Special Economic Assistance Bill 2013, which has passed first reading.

She also noted that she included the ongoing construction of a N222.3m Drug Rehabilitation and Counseling Centre located in Gedegede, Eti-Osa in the 2012 budget; the ongoing construction of N223m ultra-modern market in Oke-Ira, Eti-Osa, the 2013 budget; and the construction of a N220m model primary school at Tarkwa Bay in Iru/Victoria Island Local Council Development Area in the 2014 budget.