Northern senators in the Seventh Senate have resolved to push for the passage of a bill seeking to establish a commission that will check desert encroachment in the frontline states of the region, Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, Senator Umaru Dahiru revealed at the weekend.

Speaking during a meeting with President of the Sixth Senate, Senator David Mark, at the end of the session, Dahiru said the North is confronted with various political and economic challenges including rapid desertification which threatens the survival of millions of inhabitants in the region.

The newly elected Secretary to the NSF, Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan (ANPP, Yobe North) had during the last Senate introduced a bill on desertification control which seeks the creation of an agency to control the menace. The bill was at the stage of third reading.

Speaking at the parley, Senator Mark explained how he was able to avoid impeachment during his four-year reign as President of the Senate saying, "when I came in 2007, I promised to be open, transparent, honest and committed to the ideals of national unity. I' m a team player and I put the cards on the table. There was mutual respect between me and my colleagues. We built confidence and trusted each other. So, there was no room for the dreaded banana peels."

Mark said to reduce tension in the legislature the Senate resolved to select a few items in the 1999 constitution for amendment rather than the holistic approach that resulted in past failures.

On his ambition to emerge as President of the Seventh Senate to be inaugurated today, Mark assured that he would strive to make more impact positively on the lives of the ordinary Nigerian.

To achieve that goal, he promised to emphasis on oversight functions to ensure that ministries, departments and agencies implement appropriation Acts to the letter saying that whatever bottleneck was on the way would be erased.

Mark stated that the standing committees of the Senate would be mandated to physically visit the ministries, agencies and sites to verify implementation of budgets.