Last week, a short drama played out again at the Aso Rock, following the resurrection of an issue everyone thought had been laid to rest months ago.
Throughout the week the media space was inundated with stories on a fresh face-off between the Executive and Legislature. I believe that
this new stance by the National Assembly or rather the Senate is not just against the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo but the Executive arm of government.
In Nigeria these days, we lack no drama. From one to the next and I am tempted to ask if we are running out of ideas on what to do. Why would the Senate bring up a matter that was last discussed three months ago? Why would the executive, on the other hand, want to stand its ground on a matter that will, in the long run, weaken the status of an institution as big as the National Assembly?
Again, I am bothered that the phantom committee that was said to have been constituted to interface with the National Assembly to sort out issues between the two arms of government are nowhere to be found. Forgive me, it is obviously because the committee doesn’t exist, right?
Let me state that I am not writing as a judge or a referee on who is right or who is superior to the other.
So the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed returned to Council after about two or three weeks and was once again put on edge. This time, it
wasn’t his colleagues asking him not to comment on an issue, it was him making that demand and it was ignored. At the Post Federal Executive Council briefing, a journalist sought to know if the Council had during its closed-door meeting discussed the impasse between the two arms of government or if you may say, the Senate resolution not to screen nominees for the appointment because of a
statement credited to the Acting President.
I am hoping you have an idea about what he said but if you don’t, let me just throw in a line for you. He had said although the EFCC Act requires that an EFCC chairman be confirmed by the Senate, part of Section 171 of the Constitution, which is superior to the Act, does not mandate Senate confirmation.
“I fully agree with Mr. (Femi) Falana that there was no need in the first place to have presented Mr. Magu for confirmation,” Osinbajo said, in reference to Section 171 of the Constitution. At the time he made the statement he was Vice President and that was three months ago.
I don’t know why, but the topic seemed a touchy one. Others like me expected the two cabinet members to probably just state that the mediation committee was working to resolve the differences between the two arms of government and that all will be well soon (Well, that is my own opinion), instead they gave us drama. The funny this is after the drama they blamed journalists for twisting their words.
The question actually came up twice and the first time the Minister of Information asked the Attorney General, Abubakar Malami who sat to his left to allow him to answer the question, he agreed. Before you ask how I heard their discussion, recorders were on the table and could pick even the tiniest background chat.
Lai Mohammed’s response should have sufficed even when another journalist asked for clarification.
“Clearly it came up. The fact of the matter is that we have a very excellent mechanism for resolving whatever issues is between us and the National Assembly. That is being addressed,” he said, adding that “Whatever may be the problem between the executive and the National Assembly we have an excellent mechanism for resolving it. I don’t
think we need to go to specific statements as to what was said by A or B, we believe that government is not one arm, but both the legislative, executive and judiciary arms, whatever might be the problem we are resolving it and we are addressing it”.
A second question was thrown at the AGF in reference to the decision of the National Assembly to suspend confirmations of nominations
especially as its recommendations on Magu was not followed.
At the background, you could hear the Information Minister asking him not to make any clarification but he chose not to listen to his colleague and later turned to blame journalists for taking him out of context.
In his clarification, he said: “The fundamental consideration about the alleged statement is the fact that at no point ever did the Federal Executive Council sit down to arrive at the decision in one way or the other as far as the issue of nomination or otherwise is concerned. So, I do not think it constitutes an issue for the Federal Executive
Council to make any clarification about it because it has never been considered by the FEC. So the minister of information will throw more light on the matter”.
To throw more light on the matter, the Information Minister started his own statement saying, “with due respect” and went on to say that his earlier response sufficed.
That was how another needless controversy started. I call it needless because I feel that whatever the case, the Federal Executive Council though not directly in charge of nominations should have spoken up as one. I feel the right thing would have been for the AGF to first defend his boss and the FEC obviously because they are the executive.
Clearly, the body language I saw on that day gave me the feeling of an undertone. Is there another agenda that we do not know about?
I am trying hard not to dabble; I just couldn’t help myself when I decided to change my mind from writing about the sudden releases of roadmaps two years into the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
The two arms of government can save us one more drama by mending fences, who will call a truce, who will blink first when the economy begins to suffer, the National Assembly or the Executive? Do you have an answer? I think we the Nigerian people will suffer from their bloated egos and all those things that we have no idea about.
Elizabeth Archibong
