The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar says that Tinubu’s administration has turned the National Assembly, especially the Senate into a ‘Puppet’.
This is in light of the recent removal of Senator Ali Ndume as senate whip and his suspension from the All Progressives Congress, APC on Wednesday.
Atiku who condemned the action, in a statement via his Official X handle said members of the Senate should not be reprimanded for performing their statutory duty of calling the executive to order.
According to the former vice president, “the legislative arm of government was conceived as a means of protecting the people from the authoritarian tendencies of wielders of state powers, making sure that the executive does not go overboard in the application of its powers”.
He pointed out that the current administration of President Bola Tinubu has become an anathema to the general principle of democracy as providing primary protection for the people against executive excesses.
The statement reads in part, “Regrettably, however, the democracy in Nigeria in the current administration of President Bola Tinubu has become an anathema to that general principle of democracy as providing primary protection for the people against executive excesses.
This ugly tendency is being manifested by the steady posturing of our National Assembly, especially the Senate, of taking a reverse course in its core function and becoming a puppet in the hands of the President.
“It is uncharitable that whenever members of the Senate stand on the floor of the red chamber to perform their statutory duty of calling the executive to order, they are immediately reprimanded for doing so”.
The PDP chieftain also recalled when Senator Abdul Ningi spoke about the incident of budget padding in the 2024 Appropriation bill, rather than calling for a thorough investigation into the observation, the reaction of the Senate was to hand him a suspension.
“When Senator Abdul Ningi called the attention of the country to the incident of budget padding in the 2024 Appropriation bill, rather than calling for a thorough investigation into the observation, the reaction of the Senate was to hand him a suspension. Today, the people of Nigeria are victims of an ambiguous budget framework upon which appropriations for the current fiscal year are hinged in the face of a multiplicity of appropriations.
”Only yesterday, Senator Ali Ndume called for the President to wake up to his responsibilities and provide succour to address the biting hunger and poverty in the country. Ironically, the response of the Senate to his patriotic warning is to relieve him of his principal office as the Chief Whip of the Senate”, he wrote.
“Also, despite persistent solicitations that the government put its priorities on cancelling the excruciating hardship in the land and suspend the idea of spending scarce resources on the purchase of new aircraft for the presidential fleet, the Senate took a stand against the people and ignored the voices of altruism by decorating the President with controversial purchases of an aircraft and a yacht amidst the worst material conditions of the average citizen in the history of our country”.
Atiku also called for an end to the unholy alliance between the executive and the legislature which may lead to a dictatorship that will worsen the lot of the people.