A former Vice-Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the North-West, Salihu Lukman, has knocked members of the 10th National Assembly, saying they were not representing the interests of Nigerians.
The ex-APC chieftain alleged that the two chambers of the National Assembly are only accountable to themselves, describing it as part of the challenge to the nation’s democracy.
“The point is, Nigerian democracy, as it is, is not functionally representing the interest of citizens largely because the parliament represented by the two chambers of the National Assembly – Senate and House of Representatives – have involuntarily submitted themselves to the narcissistic control of the president,” he said in a Tuesday statement.
“Until and unless the parliament can free itself from the president, it will almost be impossible for it to develop the capacity of defending and protecting the interests of Nigerians.”
Lukman regretted that the issues that contribute to the current reality are a situation whereby the National Assembly, its leadership and its members lost the moral authority to regulate the conduct of the executive arm of government.
He claimed that the parliament functions practically at the mercy of the President and members of the executive arm, almost as if the lawmakers are employees of the executive.
“Partly because of the faint or almost complete absence of courageous voices in the National Assembly, the President and the members of the executive body of government are practically getting away with virtually every wrong decision that is injurious to the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens.
“A good example is the impulsive declaration of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to end petroleum subsidy without any clear plan, followed by another impulsive decision to float the Naira exchange rate against other international currencies with hardly any plan.
“How did we get to this abysmally low level of legislative practice whereby it can almost be said that in Nigeria, democracy equates darkness? Without going into details, combinations of many factors, which have taken place over the last 25 years are responsible.
“Some of the factors include the reality whereby systematically the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly have been downgraded to the status of appointees of the President.
“That was largely made possible by the fact that the party machinery or organs, which are supposed to serve as the platforms for negotiations have been weakened and also subordinated to the President,” Lukman stated.
