Mark and Tambuwal led had criticised several aspects of the 2013 budget ,suggesting also that the National Assembly would not be a rubber-stamp on budget passage.
Briefing newsmen yesterday in Abuja at the end of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting in Abuja, the national publicity secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the party frowned at the utterances of some of its members which tend to suggest that there was no unity of purpose in the party.
“The NWC exhaustively discussed and frowned at the disagreeable trend where members of the party elected and appointed into federal positions engage in utterances and actions that portray the PDP in bad light and as having no unity of purpose.
“We wish to emphasize that our manifesto as well as our constitution is abundantly clear on the need for all party members, especially the elected representatives of the people, to be on the same page at all times in order to ease the realisation of our policies and programmes for the benefit of the people. We therefore warn that the party will invoke the full weight of its disciplinary measures on any erring member who further brings the party to disrepute,” Metu said.
Okupe, Gulak are fifth columnists -- Senate
The Senate yesterday however described two aides of President Goodluck Jonathan as fifth columnists who do not want the president to succeed.
Sequel to the presentation of the 2013 budget, senior special assistant to the president on public affairs Doyin Okupe and political adviser to the president Alhaji Ahmed Gulak variously tongue-lashed the lawmakers, describing them as illiterates who couldn’t come up with implementable bills.
Gulak further dared the National Assembly to follow in the steps of lawmakers in 2004 who threatened to veto bills.
But the Senate via a motion sponsored by Senator Abdul Ningi urged the president to caution his aides from making inflammatory comments capable of setting him on a collision course with the National Assembly.
Senate president David Mark, while capturing the angst of the National Assembly, wondered how President Jonathan, whom he extolled as a complete gentleman, could surround himself with aides who had failed woefully and lacked the capacity to do their job.
Mark, who said the comments of the aides were unnecessary and unfortunate, added that they have no business in the presidency. He stated: “We all feel very hurt and very bad about it. And we say this against the backdrop that the president as a person is a very gentle man. Nobody can fault him.
If you have a personal interaction with him, you will know that he is a gentleman. But what is disturbing is that he has surrounded himself with aides that are not gentlemen in any respect – aides who have failed woefully to do what they are supposed to do.
And because they are totally incapable, mentally and otherwise in doing their work, they are finding a way to please Mr President.
“And they think they can please him by attacking the National Assembly, disparaging the National Assembly and trying to belittle us, giving an impression that we don’t know what we are doing. It is extremely unfortunate. The statements that have emanated from the aides so far are totally unnecessary and unfortunate and not helpful in any way.
These are people who should really try to build bridges between the executive and the legislature but they are doing the exact opposite. Any bridge that is existing now, they want to totally demolish it so that they can be on their own and, in the process, take advantage and give the president an impression that he needs to do something through them so that they can cement the relationship.
“We don’t want intermediaries between us and the executive, and they are not capable of doing that either. Like all of you here, I am not aware of any aide who has gone and won an election in his local government. Not one. And yet they find it very easy to make comments about members of the National Assembly.
They are clearly not on the same wavelength with the president and I am surprised that neither Doyin nor Gulak has retracted the statements that are attributed to them by the media. Certainly they are operating on their own. I think … they are fifth columnists who don’t want the president to succeed. But on the other hand we will not allow detractors to force us away from the course that we set our radar. We mean well for this country.
“The fact of the matter is, if Gulak is serious about his advice, we will take it in good faith and act on his advice. Here is an aide who is actually advising his own principal to be on a collision course, who is going out of his duty now to tell the people on the other side that ‘you are not firing enough shots’. That is what it means at the end of the day. I think by now, truly, Gulak has no business in the villa anymore.
But since it is not our duty to employ people for Mr President’s aid, it is not our duty to sack his aides either. By now, I think, he ought to know what to do with his aides who are putting him on a collision course with the National Assembly. They certainly can’t be described as good and helpful aides. I also believe that two wrongs can’t make a right. We must let the aides know we will not join the same bandwagon with them.
We will not join issues with aides because, truly, that will belittle this institution. My aides and the aides from the speaker’s office made a response but because the statement of Gulak came after, that is why we are taking this now. If the principal has to be happy with them, he has to be happy with them if they do their work.”
In a reaction to the statement of Gulak, the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, canvassed that the Senate should henceforth veto bills not assented to by the president.
Presidency distances self from aides
Meanwhile, the presidency yesterday disowned aides and ministers who have variously made inflammatory statements against the National Assembly.
The special adviser to the president on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Joy Emordi, in a statement particularly distanced the president from the inflammatory statements credited to two of his aides on the National Assembly.
Apparently reacting to the statements credited to Okupe and Gulak, Emordi said “the aides are on their own”.
“Let me state categorically that the alleged statements neither reflect the views of the president, His Excellency President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, on the National Assembly nor the enormous respect he has for the institution and the cordial relationship he has encouraged between the executive and the Legislature.
“In other words, those to whom the statements were credited were on their own and never spoke the mind of the president.
“I therefore want to advise that restraint and maturity are the watchwords in the Executive-Legislative relationship as rash and hasty comments on legislative thrusts or executive policies could be counterproductive.”
She noted that the legislature remains the central link in the presidential system and the president has, by his leadership principles predicated on the rule of law and his personal political temperament as a listening president and one never averse to constructive criticism, ensured that both arms of government work together for common good.
She noted: “Let me also put it on record that, with the unequalled support and encouragement of Mr President, the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters has worked to ensure constant communication and cordial working relationship between the Presidency and the National Assembly. Any grey areas have always been sorted cordially through dialogue inspired by mutual institutional and individual respect without resorting to the press, as Mr President has exhibited maturity in uncommon measures.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Why should the house automatically approve whatever the president wants. That is not their role..their role is to make sure that whatever bill the president wants fits the needs of the Nigerian people. Same party or not
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