All Progressives Congress (APC)
leaders have launched a peace move to change the frosty relationship between
the Executive and the National Assembly.
Lawmakers are threatening to
override President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto on the Electoral Act amendment,
especially the reordering of the sequence of the 2019 elections.
In a joint statement at the
weekend, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara vowed to be
“on the same page on what is an appropriate reaction to the President’s
withholding of assent on the Electoral Act amendment bill”.
It was learnt that party Chairman
John Odigie-Oyegun, Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) Chairman Abdulaziz Yari and
other leaders of the party had intervened through meetings with Presidency
officials and National Assembly’s leaders.
The party is said to be seeking a
meeting point for the two arms of government to resolve the feud.
Other senior members of the
party’s National Working Committee (NWC) have also met with the leaders of the
National Assembly “to seek their understanding”.
“Yari has held four sessions with
the Senate President. This is to underscore the fact that the party leadership
and other national leaders of the party have intervened,” a party leader said.
A ranking senator, who pleaded to
be anonymous, said: “The party leaders and national leaders have been going
forth and back to bring the two arms to the same table for talks. All the shuttles
by these leaders actually laid the foundation for Thursday’s session with the
President by the National Assembly leaders.
“Apart from the budget and
security matters, the President skipped many contentious issues, including the
disagreement over amendments to the Electoral Act, especially Order of 2019
Elections.
“So far, the Assembly leaders
have made some demands, but the President is yet to give anything in return. No
appreciable concessions.
“Democracy is about give and
take, but we are yet to get concrete commitments from the President, apart from
the directive to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to submit budget
details.”
It was learnt that a lot of
behind-the-scene shuttles took place between the National Assembly and party leaders
and governors in the last one week.
National Publicity Secretary of
APC Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi confirmed the intervention of the party’s leadership
in the disagreement. He said the party was hopeful of the resolution of the
face-off.
“The party is doing its best to
ensure that there is a meeting point between the two arms. We are working on
how to resolve the issues in question.
“While the Legislature has a
constitutional duty to make laws, the Executive also has the right to express its
feelings on any law. All we need to do is to facilitate mutual dialogue and
resolution of areas of disagreement.”
Some of the issues between the
Presidency and the National Assembly are:
- refusal by the National Assembly to keep to agreement on early passage of 2018 Budget;
- non-submission of 2018 budget details by some MDAs;
- non-clearance of more than 50 nominees presented to the Assembly by the Executive;
- alleged deliberate frustration of the administration of the President by the lawmakers;
- stoppage of alleged hounding of Saraki and other National Assembly members by anti-graft agencies ;
- compliance with the resolutions/ decisions/ summons of the National Assembly by the Executive; and
- dropping of the nomination of Mr. Ibrahim Magu for Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman .
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