The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, on Monday told the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, that the executive arm of government, which he heads, has been shying away from its responsibilities.
Tambuwal said the most glaring evidence of this has been the refusal of Jonathan to assesnt to bills passed by the legislature.
But Jonathan, in a swift reaction, said that the legislature, to which Tambuwal belongs, has been treating the executive as if the principle of separation of power has made the two arms of government enemies.
Jonathan said that inasmuch as the executive has the responsibility of issuing policies and seeing them through, the legislature should know that it is also a part of the government and should assist the process rather than be seen as an opposition, especially since the two arms of government are made up of people of the same political party.
Jonathan and Tambuwal spoke today at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja, at a symposium to mark the one year in office of the Jonathan administration and the celebration of Democracy Day.
Tambuwal, who was the first to speak, said: “Another challenge is the issue of assent to bills passed by the National Assembly.
“Inasmuch as it is the constitutional duty of the legislature to pass laws, it is equally the constitutional responsibility of Mr. President to assent to same.
“It is, however, disturbing to note that the Executive has shied away from this responsibility by not assenting to bills passed by the National Assembly.
“This makes the legislative process cumbersome because some of these bills have to be re-introduced DE NOVO.
“This is not a healthy situation for the executive-legislature relationship neither does it portray our democracy in good light amongst the Comity of Nations.
“The National Assembly has acted responsibly and cautiously in the exercise of this power in the believe that the executive will come to terms with this reality before long.”
But Jonathan strongly disagreed with Tambuwal.
He told the audience at the symposium: “Let me talk about separation of powers, which in some cases sounds even absurd.
“How separate are these powers?
“Yes, you can separate the judiciary to some reasonable level but can you really separate the parliament from the executive and have a stable government?
“That is one of the greatest challenges we have and especially in Nigeria.
“I believe if the parliamentarians and those in the executive maintain that theoretical separation of powers as if there is a wall separating the executive from the legislature, then this country would continue to have problems.
“The Speaker made reference to bills, for example.
“We all belong to political parties but the judiciary does not belong to parties.
“Every political party has a manifesto and those who contest elections to hold any office whether in the executive arm of government as president, vice president, governor or those who contest election to be in the legislative arm of government either as a legislator or councilor are supposed to campaign based on the party manifesto and that is why individual governors don’t have their separate manifesto.
“Every member of the Peoples Democratic Party, for example, are supposed to key into the PDP manifesto.
“So when we are elected into office, both arms of government are supposed to work together to make sure that the party manifestos guide our actions.
“If that is true, how do we separate them?
“If the policy of the PDP is to carry out a policy in agric, it is the executive that would come up with the programme.
“My thinking is that the legislators, who are members of PDP, should support that programme because we are there because we contested election on the platform of a particular political party, the PDP.
“But in Nigeria, sometimes, you see the anomalies, sometimes people play into separation.
“I believe both parliament and executive must work together for us to succeed, for Nigerians to get the dividends of democracy, for us to even have good governance.
“I plead with our legislators now and the next set of people that would come, today Mr. Jonathan is the President but we are talking about what should be the ideal.
“It is for us to continue to work together and work together as a team.
“If we begin to see this clear division, we are exposing the National Assembly for people who are anti-government to use.
“It is not good to always celebrate the separation.
“When we begin to celebrate the separation, those outside government would use National Assembly against the Executive.”
On issues surrounding the budget, Jonathan said: “If you send your budget to the National Assembly and they tear it to pieces and package what they like to you, how do you start planning and managing the economy?
“We have challenges every year.
“When we came in 2007, our budget in 2008, we even wanted to go to court so that the supreme court tell us if it is the duty of the National Assembly to plan the economy.
“Let them do the budget, hand over to us, we implement.
“But if it is our duty, then they should listen to us.
“This has been a major conflict between the National Assembly and the Executive.
“The speaker mentioned it, that is why I am raising it.
“These are little things if both arms of government work together.
“My plea is legislative and the executive arms of government of the same political party must work together must work together for democracy to be meaningful to Nigerians.
“As we are talking now, we have about N185 billion judgement debt for this country, most of them because of decisions taken by government not properly thought through but because people push you to take such decisions.
“When people go to court, the government is being fined.
“I have told the Attorney General that we must stop this.”
The Chairman of the symposium and former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, cautioned politicians and the media against overheating the polity with talks about the 2015 general election at this time.
Anyaoku said: “I have only two messages in my brief Chairman’s remarks.
“The first is to urge our politicians, and here I must also add our media too, to spare the nation the distraction of engaging now in public debate on the 2015 elections.
“This is only the first of a four-year political dispensation.
“We must not allow preoccupation with the 2015 elections to confirm the view that our politicians are only interested in self-aggrandizement, with the result that our national politics is bereft of active ideas on how to uplift the country and improve the quality of life of our citizens.
“The main focus of our public debates at this time should be how to tackle the massively destructive challenges currently facing the nation.
“Our democracy, like democracies in many other countries, has over the last year faced a number of serious challenges.
“We – the government, the corporate sector, the civil organisations and the citizenry – must in all our activities be driven by the commitment and desire to work for the good of the majority of our citizens.
“It is only this way that we can be confident of continuing to celebrate in years to come, our democracy day in a united and indivisible country.”
Anyaoku also noted that Jonathan’s administration had set the right direction for the nation in the areas of power supply, agricultural development, roads, railway and infrastructures.
Among those who attended the symposium were Vice President Namadi Sambo, former President Shehu Shagari, former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha, representative of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the National chairman of the PDP Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Chief Edwin Clark, ministers and top government functionaries.