Pascal Arogorn Ibe
Senate President Ahmad Lawan says the national assembly will no longer condone situations where presidential appointees disrespect its directives.
Lawan spoke at the presidential villa in Abuja when President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the executive, legislative party consultative committee headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday.
The senate president said the consultative committee will enhance good governance.
He said the essence of the committee is to ensure there is consultation on all major issues that require legislation and maybe, policies that will benefit citizens.
The legislature, the executive arm of government and of course the party in power, have seen the need to bring everybody on board so that we are able to consult widely before major issues are table before the citizens of this country,” he said.
Specifically, what we intend to achieve is to improve the quality of governance and service delivery to Nigerians.
“Mr. President made it very clear that he is not going to tolerate any of his appointees doing things that are not respectable, things that have no dignity to the national assembly. I believe that should be the end of it. We believe that we should work together.
“For us in the national assembly, I think what has happened has happened, we pray nobody goes to the national assembly to do the kind of things that disrespect the president and of course abuse the national assembly, we are not going to tolerate that.”
Earlier, Buhari lamented that despite the All Progressive Congress (APC) being the ruling party and having dominance at all levels of government, it has lost some governorship and legislative seats because of “unnecessary squabbles”.
The party lost Adamawa, Bauchi, Oyo and Zamfara states to the opposition due to internal party wrangling.
The president said he set up the committee to avert such occurrences in the future.
Our party commands a clear majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives and working relationships between the Executive and the Legislature has been excellent so far,” Buhari said.
“Our joint responsibility is to keep things that way and see where we can improve our communication and coordination.
But we must admit to ourselves that our party has been too often embroiled in bitter, and on occasions, totally unnecessary squabbles, causing us seats in the legislative and gubernatorial elections. This never should have happened, we are here to make sure such occurrences never happen again.
“We must now ensure regular consultations between the party and the government.
I am a firm believer in the doctrine of separation of powers, which is fundamental to our constitutional democracy, but our practice should be harmonious checks and balances, devoid of bitterness and petty rivalry. As one government, we must further align ourselves and be alive to our electoral promises. We need to nurture our party, which is the platform that will take us and our country forward.”
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