By TUNDE JOSHUA
The Senate has said that the performance of any legislature is not measured by the frequency of rifts with the executive or the number of impeachment moves against a sitting President. It explained that the best parameter for scoring a legislative house is the symbiotic role it can play to complement the efforts of the executive in delivering good governance.
Senate spokesman and Chairman, Committee on Public Affairs, Dr Ajibola Basiru made the clarification in apparent reaction to a statement credited to a former Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi.
Ningi had said that the 9th Assembly has been too soft on both National Issues and President Muhammadu Buhari on some alleged “wrongdoings” that he said are “detrimental to good governance”. The Senate spokesman knocked Ningi for lacking understanding in parliamentary procedures in spite of being a ranking Senator and former principal officer of the Red Chamber.
Doubting Ningi’s understanding of parliamentary procedures, Basiru in a statement Tuesday said “it is baffling that Senator Ningi never understood that neither the National Assembly nor the Senate is constituted as an opposition to antagonise other arms of government but as an assemblage of lawmakers elected for good governance and pursuits of national interest.
“The barometer to gauge a working Legislature is not how many times it initiated a furtile and failed impeachment procedure against a sitting President but the amount of work it could do within the framework of cooperative bi- partisan legislation”. Defending the Ahmad Lawan – led 9th Senate , the spokesperson said that the Senate had at many times turned down requests from the President but “they were done with maturity and understanding without generating so much rancour and public uproar “.
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The 9th Assembly represents the ever increasing maturity of Nigeria’s democracy, he added. According to him, the 9th Assembly has been the most successful since the return to civil rule in 1999 adding that “our focus has been on impactful legislations which bother on the economy, security and livelihood of Nigerians.” Basiru said the 9th Assembly “has successfully passed the Petroleum Industry Bill which had suffered several abortive attempts since its introduction before the 6th National Assembly, The Trumpet gathered.
“Besides, the Finance Act (2020), The CAMA Act (2020), the Deep Off Shore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract (Ammendment) Act 2019, Public procurement Act, 2020, Electoral Act, Return to January -December budget cycle are few of the many landmark bills passed by the National Assembly. “We worked on legislation that have realistic chance of being assented to and which have potential impact on the lives of Nigerians’”.
