October 17, 2012 by John Alechenu and Oluwole Josiah
The Senate on Tuesday said it was too big to join issues with ‘lowly’ Presidency officials.
It therefore advised the Presidency to look inwards
to see if some of President Goodluck Jonathan’s aides were genuinely
working in his interest.
Spokesman of the Senate, Eyinnaya Abaribe, while
reacting to recent remarks credited to the Special Adviser to the
President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, said the lawmakers were
confident that Jonathan did not instruct any of his aides to take on the
National Assembly as an institution.
Gulak had asked Nigerians to blame the National Assembly for the poor implementation of the 2012 budget.
He said, “Presentation of the budget is one thing
while its passage is another. As a remainder, the 2012 budget was passed
by the National Assembly in April. So, you do expect the budget to have
been implemented by 80 per cent in September?
“If that budget was passed by January 1, and by
September or October, you have not achieved up to 60 per cent, then you
can quarrel. Not taking into cognizance all these amounts to insincerity
on our parts. Let them pass the 2013 budget and let it become effective
from January 1 and they will see if the budget is not implemented 100
per cent.”
But Abaribe, who said the Senate had serious things
to talk about, added that the criticisms directed at the Assembly by
Jonathan’s aides would not serve the President well.
“We think that we should focus on things that are really important to Nigerians.
He said, “We do not believe that President Jonathan
has sent anybody out to come and cast aspersions on the Senate or the
House of Representatives.
“Our belief is that those individuals speak for themselves and they are not doing the President any good.
“Our belief is that each arm of government is
supposed to work harmoniously and do everything in the interest of the
common person in Nigeria for the interest of each and every one of us as
citizens of this country.”
He advised the aides of the President who wanted to
go all out to forment trouble between the Executive and the National
Assembly to desist from doing so.
“We desire to build a harmonious relationship; we
desire to be on the same page with the Executive. Our utmost desire is
to ensure that we reduce conflict to a minimum level because conflict
does not serve anybody,” he said.
On the Bakassi issue, Abaribe said the Senate was
waiting for the report of the Committee set up by the President before
taking further steps.
Earlier, Senators donated N22.8m to assist flood
victims across the country. President of the Senate, David Mark
announced the donation after a closed door session.
He explained that each Senator was levied 200,000 and the 10 principal officers, N300,000.
Meanwhile, the Deputy President of the Senate, Chief
Ike Ekweremadu, has said that his comments on the need to have well
educated representatives for Nigerians were taken out of context.
In a statement on Tuesday by his Media Adviser, Uche Anichukwu, The Senate said is an institution that he held in high esteem.
Ekweremadu, who was the guest lecturer at the
Nigerian Union of Journalists’ 2nd Zik Annual Lecture in Awka, Anambra
State on Monday, spoke on “The Political Ideology of the Great Zik of
Africa and the Challenge of Leadership in Nigeria.”
Anichukwu said, “The Deputy President of the Senate
stressed that the 21st Century Nigeria needed knowledgeable leadership
at all levels that can effectively drive development and realise the
lofty dreams of the nation’s founding fathers.
He said that while he saw nothing wrong with
stressing the need for knowledge-driven leadership, such as exhibited by
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, to single the National Assembly out for denigration
and attributing same to him was improper and too sweeping.
SOURCE: The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper 17 October 2012.
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