Inaugurates consultative committee

Our deference to APC won’t compromise legislature — Lawan

APC’ll no longer condone errant members — Buni

President Muhammadu Buhari

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru – Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday noted with regret that despite the dominance of the All Progressives Congress, APC, at all levels of government, the party was embroiled in bitter and unnecessary squabbles.

President Buhari stated this while Inaugurating the APC’s Executive-Legislative Consultative Committee at the Council Chamber, presidential villa, Abuja.

The President, who said that rancour in the governing party had cost it governorship and legislative seats during elections, warned that it should not be allowed to happen again.

He said the meeting was therefore called to avert the occurrences in the future.

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According to him, “We must now ensure regular consultations between the party and the governments.

“Our party commands a clear majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Vice President, the Distinguished Senate President, the Right Honourable Speaker and I, all belong to APC, and working relationships between the Executive and the Legislature has been excellent so far.

“Our joint responsibility is to keep things that way and see where we can improve our communication and coordination.

“But we must admit to ourselves that our party has been too often embroiled in bitter, and on occasions, totally unnecessary squabbles, costing us seats in the legislative and gubernatorial elections.

“This never should have happened. We are here to make sure such occurrences never happen again.

We must now ensure regular consultations between the party and government.

“I am a firm believer in the doctrine of Separation of Powers, which is fundamental to our constitutional democracy, but our practice should be harmonious checks and balances, devoid of bitterness and petty rivalry.

“As one government, we must further align ourselves and be alive to our electoral promises. We need to nurture our party, which is the platform that will take us and our country forward.”

President Buhari said he was placing great faith in the consultative committee to help improve governance and APC’s achievements to the people of Nigeria, saying that he expects regular feedback on the committee’s activities and “I am as always ready to lead and find solutions.”

He added: “Your success will directly enhance the success of this administration and greatly improve the conditions of our people.”

Briefing State House correspondents after the inauguration, Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan explained that the essence of the consultative forum was for the branches of government to cooperate to enhance governance and will not compromise the legislature.

He said, “The legislature, the executive arm of government and of course the party in power, have seen the need to bring everybody on board so that we are able to consult widely before major issues are tabled before the citizens of this country.

“Specifically, what we intend to achieve is to improve the quality of governance and service delivery to Nigerians. We have promised Nigerians and Nigerians voted for the All Progressives Congress at all the levels.

“So, it is incumbent upon us at all levels and as a party to ensure we meet the expectations and aspirations of Nigerians.

“Just like Mr. President expressed, we believe that the constitution rightly provides for the separation of powers and we believe in that. The legislature will always on its own ensure we oversight and we check possible excesses of the executive arm of government.

“But we also believe that separation of powers also means there should be cooperation, consultation, coordination, and partnership for the benefits of the people of this country. This is not in any way to compromise the different functions that we are tasked with and scheduled to discharge.

“The party is our platform, it has a  sense, direction, manifesto, programmes, and projects and we elected on both sides of government, executive and legislature will always ensure we stick to what the party provides for us to do.

“But I want to ensure that this is not in any way to compromise the legislature. If anything, it is to strengthen the legislature. Because, with first hand, the legislature is to advise on any bill coming from the executive arm of the government.

“We will ensure we receive bills that will meet the expectations of Nigerians. We will always have different perspectives because we are legislature by design and orientation and the executive may bring a bill which it thinks in its judgment will enhance governance.  But when the legislature brings its perspective and we advise, I think it will enrich it.

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“And when it comes to the National Assembly, it is not an APC National Assembly, it has a representation of other political parties and we have so far enjoyed support and cooperation and partnership of our colleagues from other political parties, particularly the PDP and we commend them for that, we are grateful for that, we have done that for them before, and we expect that for this, the cooperation and the partnership in the National Assembly with different political parties will continue because, we are going to serve Nigerians with different political parties persuasion.”

Also speaking, the Chairman, APC National Caretaker Committee, and Governor of Yobe state, Mai Bala Buni said a tripartite arrangement like the one just inaugurated was necessary for the administration to deliver the much-needed change.

He warned that going forward, party members’ deviant behavior will no longer be tolerated

He said, “As a party, we are very happy with this development, this tripartite arrangement. It is something that we have been looking for because the party is in control of both chambers Senate and House of Reps in the National Assembly and the party under the leadership of his Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, is determined to deliver the dividend and work with our manifesto.

“We need an arrangement like this to synergize and work together to deliver on our promises because when the two arms of government, the executive and the legislature are working together, alongside the leadership of the party, we are sure that our manifestos will work accordingly and our promises will be delivered because our party is the vehicle that will be used to deliver both the executive and legislature because the President of the Senate is an APC member and also the Speaker.

“So, we want the president and leader of the party and two presiding officers working together alongside the party. So, this is a very positive development for APC in Nigeria.

“There is time for everything. Going forward, there are certain things we will not condone because we are not running a neutral government and we campaigned based on some  manifesto and we will work on that and like I said, there is time for everything and this is the time for this tripartite arrangement and it is in this best interest of Nigerians and the party.”

The SGF, on his part, said the committee inauguration is another solid foundation in Buhari’s administration effort to advance the cause of democracy and governance in the country.

He said: “The essence essentially is to create a synergy between the party which is the platform on which we were elected and the mandate of the party which we are exercising.

“It is expected that at the end of the tenure of this administration, we will account to the people of Nigeria as to the mandate that they willingly and overwhelmingly entrusted in our hands in securing victory at the presidency, senatorial and the legislative elections.

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“So, I believe today is another milestone that we will evolve the act of governance in a collaborative manner. We always appear before the National Assembly to be oversight and also to present the Appropriation Bill that will eventually become an Act.

“We can’t achieve much if there is no synergy, good, and harmonious relationship. So, it was on this note that this tripartite consultative forum has been set up to ensure that at any given time, we will relate with each other in the context of our assignment, respecting the principle of the separation of powers.

“And also being reminded by the party that the power that we exercise whether in the legislature or the executive, was first given to us by the party because of the platform it created.

“To ensure we work for the good of the people of Nigeria  going forward, in the next couple of months, we will see a lot of harmonized activities from this particular forum.”

Vice President Osinbajo is the chairman of the committee.

The inauguration was attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan; Speaker, House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamila; Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege; the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha; Chairman, APC National Caretaker Committee and Governor of Yobe state, Mai Bala Buni; and Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Idris Waze, among others.

Vanguard