Emergence Of Akpabio, Abbas Casts Doubts Over An Independent Legislature – HURIWA Says
…Berates President Tinubu for imposing NASS leadership
A rights advocacy group on the aegis of ‘HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)’ on Tuesday expressed doubts over Nigerians witnessing a robust independent minded and pro-people National Assembly.
HURIWA particularly said that the handpicking of Akpabio as Senate President and Tajudeen Abbas as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 10th National Assembly and their deputies by President Tinubu, who is the Head of the executive arm of government has clearly made it almost impossible for the people’s representatives to provide a robust legislative activities.
The rights group also said that the National Assembly would be incapable of or unwilling to provide oversight functions over the executive and judicial arm of government in the current dispensation.
It therefore charged Nigerians to be vigilant and be prepared to defend the integrity of the constitutional democracy that the nation had embraced.
HURIWA which stated these following the emergence of former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio as President of the Senate and Hon. Tajujdeen Abbas as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 10th National Assembly, expressed concern why the Executive arm of government should dictate the choice of the leadership of the legislature that was expected to carry out oversight on it.
The Rights group said that it had predicted that the current session of the National Assembly with the handpicked candidates of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu imposed on the Senators and House of Representatives members, will just be docile, and a rubberstamped legislature like the 9th Session of the National Assembly headed by Senator Ahmed Lawan.
HURIWA in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko said it was unfortunate that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has created the impression that the senators and members of the House of Representatives were persons of very low integrity whose consciences can be bought by either money or political patronage to do the bidding of the President which is antithetical to the fundamentals of constitutional democracy.
HURIWA specifically accused the President Tinubu-led executive arm of government of arm twisting the legislators to accept the docile leadership that the executive had all the while prepared for the 10th session of the National Assembly.
In the words of HURIWA; “We are shocked by the amount of interest and the high levels of threats and intimidation that the few Senators who dissented from the mainstream position of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the leadership composition in the National Assembly were subjected to including the attempted deployment of armed law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies against them just so they can step down for Akpabio, who incidentally has been accused by the EFCC of financial indiscretion as Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
“The processes that threw up the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives smacks of executive interferences and as far as rational minded people are concerned, the National Assembly is already hijacked by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and unless miracle happens, the interests of the people of Nigeria who are the real owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria, won’t be protected because President Tinubu, who fixed Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas as heads of Senate and House of Representatives, already has his secret plot that he intends to achieve and these are all about himself and his political dynasty.
“Nigerians must be ready to fight for their rights,” it stressed.
