Understanding the crux of the executive-legislature face off

The setting up of a committee by the President to look into the frosty relationship between the Executive and Legislative arm of government is an admittance by the government that a rift exist between the two arms of government. The committee is chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo. Other members include ministers who have been Legislators and those who have friends among members of the national assembly.
This was followed by a visit of the National Working Committee NWC of APC to national assembly to interact with members of the Senate on the way out of the rift. After the meeting, the chairman of the party called for a ceasefire from members of the political party in both arms of government from further verbiage to create a peaceful platform for resolution. For the Senate president, it was a fruitful meeting which afforded everyone the opportunity to speak frankly about issues relating to the crises.
Recent activities at the Senate, such as the non confirmation of the Ag. Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, the stepping down of the confirmation of the 27 commissioners recently appointed for the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, the Senate/Controller General of Custom face off, the Senate report indicting the Secretary to Government of the Federation SGF and a resolution taken on the floor of the Senate to step down action on all request from the executive arm of government until previous resolutions were implemented, were obvious pointers that all was not well between the two.
One would ask how did we get here? The two arms of government were supposed to compliment themselves in the business of delivering good governance to the people of Nigeria. This has not been the case as the relationship between the two has been a rancorous one, which has affected governance.
Many Nigerians believe that the Senate is populated by men and women who are corrupt, who do not have the moral basis to legislate for the country. This is not unconnected with the number of Senators having one or two cases to answer with the anti corruption agencies. That aside, the Senate President is facing corruption charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal CCT and the amount of solidarity shown by the entire Senate has been of concern to Nigerians. And so it was easy for Nigerians to lose confidence in the Senate.
However, while Nigerians are right in their perception of the present Senate as a group of unserious and undistinguished Senators, it is imperative to understand the crux of these crises.

Many may have forgotten the event of June 9, 2015, when the 8th Senate was inaugurated and Senator Bukola Saraki presented himself for election as Senate president, which he won, against his party favourite. The APC had preferred Senator Adamu Lawal to any other candidate. This did not go down well with the party and the fireworks that followed had threatened to tear the party apart, with party chieftains pointing accusing finger at each other.
While various arguments have been put forward in this regard, the friction between the executive and legislature is a fall out of the inability of a group of parties or personalities, which came together to form a common front on how to capture power at the centre, without putting proper mechanism in place to manage the party structure, as well as the positions which would be up for grabs.
Before the general election, the chairman of the Party, Chief Odigie Oyegun had emerged from the ANPP during their national convention in 2014. In the party primary held in Lagos in 2014, GMB came out victorious as the party’s Presidential candidate. He is of the CPC. Yemi Osinbajo was selected as the vice president. He was of the ACN. These groups of people presently populate the executive arm of government and the hierarchy of the party administration. To this end, what the duo of Saraki and Dogara, who were members of the new PDP, which decamped to APC needed, was to create a hold on the party structure and the government in other to protect their political future through their election as Senate president and Speaker respectively, against their party will. This is the heart of the various squabbles between the two arms of government.
The national assembly is key to the success of any party politics as well as the government. This is so because of their closeness to the grass roots and their direct interaction with the masses. Losing that all important institution has been a source of worry for the party. In order to erode the credibility of the leadership of the Senate and its members, what the executive arm have employed is the strategy of using corruption as a campaign of calumny against the National Assembly. This is without prejudice to the corrupt tendencies of the Senators and the Senate president. In September 2015, the president of the Senate was immediately arraigned at the Code of Conduct Tribunal CCT. The Senate president was subjected to a harsh and rigorous media trial as well as adverse public opinion, which was meant to either drive his impeachment by his colleagues or resignation from office as a result of public outcry over his case at the code of conduct tribunal. That did not work. The leadership of the Senate was further taken to court for forging the order rule book of the Senate, which have been withdrawn from the court.
This is not to hold fort for the National Assembly or Senate over corruption of its members. Corruption is an institution in Nigeria and it has permeated all strata of the country. Corruption exists in the executive, in the legislature, the judiciary and the business of ordinary Nigerian on the street. The executive arm which now claims to be holier than thou is not better off in the world of corruption in Nigeria. We have so many governors who are presently serving as ministers who have petitions against them at the EFCC. Some principal officers of this government have been accused of corruption, which the government have not taken steps to thoroughly investigate. The case of the SGF, Babachir Lawal, and that of Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, readily comes to mind. The alleged fraudulent recruitment carried out by some notable parastatal of government such as the NNPC, CBN, Immigration, and the recent investigation into Forex manipulation at the apex bank, are some of the corruption allegation against the executive which has not receive any attention from the government.
To this end, it has become very important to draw the attention of Nigerians to the fact that the use of anti corruption fight as a cover for political manoeuvring by the executive is no longer tenable. What the party is doing is to tie all the National Assembly members to the ills associated with the PDP, since majority of their members are dacampees from the PDP. Nigerians should not fall for this antics of the APC, since both came together and agreed to work together to claim power. Since there was acceptability at the formation stage of the party, it will be wrong for some members to be tagged as corrupt after the elections have been won.
Nigeria runs an annual budget, where every arm of government is budgeted for. The issue has been that the National Assembly do not run their financials in a transparent manner. How transparent has the executive arm of government been? We hear of releases of funds to MDAs. How transparent are the MDAs in the disbursement of the funds to the end users? How transparent are they when it comes to their remuneration? How often do we hear of project commissioning by the executive? Just last week, there was a call for transparency and accountability in the National Assembly by the governor of Kaduna State, in an event where the Speaker of the House of Representatives was a guest. The speaker was quick to remind the governor that more accountability and transparency is required from them as no one have an inkling of what they do with their security vote and the local government funds. This is simply a way of telling the governor that they are in this together; that is, stealing Nigeria’s commonwealth together in different guise.
The crux of the matter is that the executive is simply playing politics with the feud with the National Assembly which is actually a strategic distraction of the people of Nigeria from their future political positioning. Nigerians should unite in the demand for accountability and transparency from all arms of government as well as the business community. The fight against corruption should not be used as a political tool, rather it should be holistic.

 

Shaka Oyaregba