by Wale Bakare

The Nigerian Senate today celebrates her one year in office under the leadership of Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

Listed below are 10 of Saraki’s memorable quotes from his one year in office.

1.”May the future generation of citizens look upon the 8th National Assembly as a true assembly of our people’s representatives who did their best in the service of our nation”

(Stated during Saraki’s speech delivered shortly after emerging the Senate President)

2. “Iam most honoured and privileged to be elected to serve as President of the Senate. I accept with humility and respect the honour you have conferred upon me today,”

(Acceptance Statement)

3. “The charges have nothing to do with corruption or money being stolen anywhere. I will have my day in court to prove my innocence of the charge pending against me because it is not about corruption”

(At the Statecraft masterclass series held during the social media week in response to question on his CCT Trial in Lagos)

4. “We have to strengthen the foundation of Nigeria’s economy by ensuring smart and effective regulation and embark on increasing competitiveness and private sector investment”

(Stated during the National Assembly Business Roundtable #NASSBER)

5. “Our economic fundamentals remain robust and the economy is resilient to absorb the current oil price shock. The situation is bringing out the entrepreneurship in us. Our private sector is also rising to the challenge. We assure you we will use this occasion to build a new economy diversified away from the perennial effects of oil price shock”

(During IMF Chief, Lagarde’s visit to the Senate)

6.”Distinguished colleagues, 2016 must be the year of transparency and delivery. We must demonstrate to the Nigerian people who put us in office – that we are working in their interest to ensure a progssive and inclusive national development plan”

(At the resumption of plenary during the new year)

7. “We in the National Assembly will continue to strengthen the electoral laws and other legislations that can build institutional checks against the abuse of the laws by individuals and groups. We must get to the point where people who resort to violence to achieve political objectives are severely punished”

(Quote from Saraki’s Democracy day message)

8. “No doubt we are not in the best of times as a nation but with cooperation, dedication and perseverance we can turn our economy around for good”

(Workers day celebration message)

9.”The National Assembly will stop at nothing to ensure that there is peace. We will not stop working until there is peace between farmers and herdsmen in this country. Please be patient”

(During farmers/herdsmen visit from Kautal Hore Socio-Cultural Association, Jigawa State)

10. “If you look at the supplementary budget, that supplement budget under normal circumstance would not have been passed if the senators should go on party lines and platforms which they were elected. If you see what we have done in the past one year despite a lot distraction, you’ll see that it is a senate that has a roadmap. We are not just coming to the senate and just jumping from one issue to another, you can see, this is a senate that is focusing largely on the economy, we are focusing on how do we make Nigeria a better place”

(At a meeting with journalists to mark his 1yr in office)