A
abujagirl
Guest
Ghali Umar Na’Abba, former Speaker of the House of Representatives has blamed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the fight between the executive and the legislature.
Na’Abba on Friday spoke at a national conference on “Political party supremacy and the dynamics of parliamentary autonomy”, organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). He said Obasanjo’s move to impose the leadership of the National Assembly in 1999 was responsible for the frosty relationship that has since existed between the two arms of government.
“The action of 3rd June 1999 by Obasanjo, the election of Ghali Na’Abba as speaker of the House of Representatives on 22nd July, 1999 and the election of Senator Chiba Okadigbo as Senate President convoluted to define the relationship between the legislature and the executive.
“The relationship between the National Assembly and the executive arm became characterised by antagonism. It was clearly more than the necessary kind of friction which was desirous for the proper functioning of the legislature.
“In doing what he did in the senate, the President did not carry the PDP along. The intention of the President in all of those was to ensure that he governed with a subjugated legislature. In the House of Representatives, he met with stiff resistance.
“That was the reason he insisted that the Speaker be impeached. Up to the time the House came to an end, he did not succeed. In the senate, Senator Chiba Okadigbo was impeached eight months after he was elected.”
Na’Abba on Friday spoke at a national conference on “Political party supremacy and the dynamics of parliamentary autonomy”, organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). He said Obasanjo’s move to impose the leadership of the National Assembly in 1999 was responsible for the frosty relationship that has since existed between the two arms of government.
“The action of 3rd June 1999 by Obasanjo, the election of Ghali Na’Abba as speaker of the House of Representatives on 22nd July, 1999 and the election of Senator Chiba Okadigbo as Senate President convoluted to define the relationship between the legislature and the executive.
“The relationship between the National Assembly and the executive arm became characterised by antagonism. It was clearly more than the necessary kind of friction which was desirous for the proper functioning of the legislature.
“In doing what he did in the senate, the President did not carry the PDP along. The intention of the President in all of those was to ensure that he governed with a subjugated legislature. In the House of Representatives, he met with stiff resistance.
“That was the reason he insisted that the Speaker be impeached. Up to the time the House came to an end, he did not succeed. In the senate, Senator Chiba Okadigbo was impeached eight months after he was elected.”
