Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says the national assembly is becoming an “enabler of executive recklessness”.
In a post on X on Thursday, Abubakar condemned the removal
of Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south, as the chief whip of the senate.
On Wednesday, Tahir Monguno, senator representing Borno
north, took Ndume’s position following a request by Abdullahi Ganduje, national
chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Ajibola Basiru, national
secretary of the party.
Ndume has been critical of the government over the state of
the nation with his recent claim that the administration of President Bola
Tinubu is populated by kleptocrats.
Reacting to Ndume’s removal as the senate chief whip, the
former vice-president alleged the Tinubu-led administration is clamping down on
people speaking truth to power.
“In the evolution of systems of government, a major concern
for thinkers was a governmental framework that will reduce the highhandedness
of the executive arm of government,” he wrote.
“It was thought, and rightly so too, that a participatory
approach to governance, such that will make the government derive its
legitimacy from the people will better serve the interest of the masses.
“And thus, to make
sure that the executive does not go overboard in the application of its powers,
the legislative arm of government was conceived as a means of protecting the
people from the authoritarian tendencies of wielders of state powers.
“Regrettably, however, the democracy in Nigeria in the
current administration of President Bola Tinubu has become an anathema to that
general principle of democracy as providing primary protection for the people
against executive excesses.
“This ugly tendency is being manifested by the steady
posturing of our National Assembly, especially the Senate, of taking a reverse
course in its core function and becoming a puppet in the hands of the
President.
“It is uncharitable that whenever members of the Senate stand
on the floor of the red chamber to perform their statutory duty of calling the
executive to order, they are immediately reprimanded for so doing.
“When Senator Abdul
Ningi called attention of the country to the incident of budget padding in the
2024 Appropriation bill, rather than calling for a thorough investigation into
the observation, the reaction of the Senate was to hand him a suspension.
“Today, the people of Nigeria are victims of ambiguous
budget framework upon which appropriations for the current fiscal year are
hinged in the face of a multiplicity of appropriations.
“Only yesterday, Senator Ali Ndume called for the President
to wake up to his responsibilities and provide succour to address the biting
hunger and poverty in the country. Ironically, the response of the senate to
his patriotic warning is to relieve him of his principal office as the Chief
Whip of the Senate.
“Also, despite persistent solicitations that government put
its priorities on cancelling the excruciating hardship in the land and suspend
the idea of spending scarce resources on the purchase of new aircraft for the
presidential fleet, the Senate took a stand against the people and ignored the
voices of altruism by decorating the President with controversial purchases of
an aircraft and a yacht amidst the worst material conditions of the average
citizen in the history of our country.
“We are, therefore,
beginning to see a pattern in which the National Assembly has become an enabler
of executive recklessness, and the concerns of the people stand in the nadir of
priority list of the legislature. This emerging reality must stop.”
Abubakar said the nation’s democracy is being “compromised”
by an “unholy alliance” between the executive and the legislature and “portends
a dictatorship that will worsen a lot of the people”.
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