Buhari & Saraki
hehehehe...... Following
yesterday's directive by President Buhari durng the Federal Executive
Council to set up a committee to settle the rift between the executive
and legislature, Nigerian Senators, has reacted with conditions.
The Senate has reacted to the setting up of a committee by the
Federal Executive Council to settle the rift between it and the National
Assembly with five conditions that must be met for peace to reign,
DailyTrust reports.
The Senate through a ranking senator (name withheld) who is close
to the leadership of the senate identified five conditions for peace to
reign between the executive and the legislative arm of government.
He said for peace to prevail between the presidency and the senate,
the trial of the senate president, Bukola Saraki should be discontinued
forthwith.
"The trial of Saraki is central to the crisis because it is
believed that they came up with it because he ‘violated’ the interest of
the presidency and the party (APC) to emerge the senate president. If
his trial is stopped, there would be peace," he said.
He added that irrespective of the peace moves by the executive, the
camps within the presidency must be united, otherwise they will
continue to use the senate against each other.
“A camp in the presidency is using the senate against another.
This is the second issue that must be addressed for peace to reign.
Buhari should dissolve the camp, otherwise no serious progress would be
made,” he added.
He also said, the head of government agencies including ministers
must be made to respect senate resolutions. “If a resolution is passed,
the executive doesn’t respect it, there is general contempt against us.
This must stop,” he said.
He said there was urgent need for the president to engage the
leadership of the APC for proper coordination of the party’s caucus at
the senate.
“The president must be talking to the party for it to be
talking to caucus. If the president is bringing anything to the senate,
the party should be involved. The fifth one is that there is no personal
communication between the senators and the president. There is need for
this,” he said.
When DailyTrust contacted the spokesperson of the senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, he said: “You are just telling me now. I’m not aware of such committee and I don’t know its terms of reference.”
Another source disclosed that there are issues between the
presidency and the two chambers of the National Assembly, not only the
Senate.
“Frankly speaking, there are issues with both chambers. Yes,
that of the Senate may be pronounced, but there are issues with the
House as well. How can you increase the budget of the judiciary by N30bn
without increasing that of the legislature? The lawmakers are not happy
with this.
“Again, the president doesn’t see them as anything. He treats
them with disdain, and it’s the fault of his aides. He doesn’t meet
lawmakers privately to discuss issues, which wasn’t the case in the
past. They’re only managing to work with him.
“There were instances that the president would travel to a
place with the Senate President and the Speaker, but he would be
distanced from meeting the National Assembly leaders. All these things
may be small, but they’re important as far as their relationship is
concerned. The House is only managing the relationship, while that of
the Senate seems to go out of hand.
“As I speak with you, there are lawmakers that are not
principal officers, but they have unfettered access to the Villa, while
principal officers don’t. If anything comes up, those lawmakers that are
just committee chairmen can’t do anything to defend the president.
“For me, the way out is for the president to open up and make
himself accessible to the lawmakers. He should know that it’s not a
one-man show. He should respect them the way they respect him,” the source said.
Another lawmaker said there are no serious issues between the House
and the presidency but that the attitude of some heads of government
agencies toward the lower chamber was unbecoming.
“There are no real issues that one can say are pronounced. The
issues we have mostly have to do with heads of agencies. Sometime when
we invite them, they don’t want to appear until we now summon them.
“As a parliament, we have powers to invite anybody to appear
before us on an issue, but they give flimsy excuses here and there. That
notwithstanding, we don’t have issues with the presidency currently.
“The real issues are in the Senate. In fact, at some point, the
speaker was trying to mediate between the Senate and the presidency,
that’s to tell you we don’t have issues with them. May be the presidency
sensed that the suspension of Ndume may lead to other things, that is
why they quickly swung into action,” the lawmaker said.
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