Nigeria Content Online

The governor of
Niger State, Aliyu Babangida, and deputy Senate president, Ike
Ekweremadu, were the latest in a long line of dignitaries to offer
their condolences for the fire that damaged part of the Peoples’
Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Abuja.

The two men visited
the secretariat in Abuja yesterday, and spoke on a number of issues,
including the state of the constitutional amendment and better building
codes.

Mr. Ekweremadu said the fire called to question some of the building’s disaster-preparedness measures.

“When people are
building houses, we should be able to put in place measures to address
all these unforeseen circumstances,” he said.

“Now that we are building the new party secretariat, we [should] ensure that these disasters are addressed at design stage.”

Talking politics

In response to a
question about the amended constitution, he said it was “operational.”
He challenged anyone who disagreed to take the matter to the courts.

“Our business is to
make laws and once those laws are made, it becomes what is called
‘funtus officio’. So the law is operational until it is set aside by
the court,” he said.

“We are not going to worry ourselves about that. As far as we are concerned, we have done our job.”

On the INEC request
for the voters register and 2011 elections, he said the commission
needed to use its initial N87 billion request before the National
Assembly could approve further funds.

“Even though I have reservations about the figure, we need to support them to do a good job,” he said.

“We hope they apply the money appropriately.”