By Emmanuel Aziken

Relations between the present National Assembly and the Muhammadu Buhari presidency kicked-off on a very sour note after the presidency allegedly objected to the emergence of the present set of presiding officers at the leadership election.

The relationship was not helped by the fact that Senator Ike Ekweremadu, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, also emerged as the Deputy President of the Senate in an All Progressives Congress, APC leadership.

President Muhammadu Buhari; Saraki, Senate President and Dogara, Speaker

Perhaps because of that dissonance, the traditional reception given new presiding officers of the legislature by the president was not extended to the Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara led National Assembly.

The situation was not helped when the president in an act of tactlessness appointed Senator Ita Enang as his special liaison to the Senate. The tactlessness was not on account of Enang’s lack of capacity, especially given the senator’s rich experience in the legislature having served and been involved in practically all the legislative processes in the National Assembly since 1999.

The slip-up, however, arose from Senator Enang’s recent political background as one of the strong antagonists of the new Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio. How the president expected cordiality with a Senate where he had an antagonist of the opposition leader as his special liaison was bound to be interesting.

As the crisis in confidence between the two arms of government deteriorated, the inconvenience of Senator Enang’s position began to crystallise. He was mentioned as a witness on the side of one of the Senate factions in the case over the alleged forgery of the Senate Standing orders.

When the issue of the missing and fake budget scandal arose last January, the Senate leadership did not have scruples naming Senator Enang as the alleged culprit who circulated the fake budget.

Senator Enang was, however, not the first legislative liaison to face such embarrassment as a result of discord between the executive and the legislative arms of government.

Dr. Esther Uduehi who served as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first legislative liaison to the House of Representatives in his first term faced, even more, hostility. Upon her alleged role in stoking the agitations against the Ghali Umar Na‘abba leadership of the house, the house took a resolution banning her from stepping into the precincts of the National Assembly! She was banished for the rest of her time in office to the Bullet Building, housing the Federal Secretariat, outside the National Assembly complex from where she related with the anti-Na‘abba elements in the house.

Some other presidential liaisons had more positive eventful experiences. It was perhaps following the difficulties of Mrs. Uduehi that Obasanjo decided to choose a former legislator as his National Assembly adviser. Senator Florence Ita-Giwa was a dutiful and diligent liaison who used her legislative experience to navigate the difficult terrains of the legislature. She was almost totally successful in her liaisons apart from the monumental failure of the Third Term Agenda.

However, few will doubt the resilient and rosy relationship built by Senator Joy Emodi as National Assembly adviser in the most difficult circumstances that faced relations between the legislature and the executive since the time of Mrs. Uduehi.

Mrs. Emodi who served as President Goodluck Jonathan’s National Assembly adviser from 2011 to 2013 was known to have developed almost a motherly relationship with some of the otherwise radical members of the House of Representatives to the extent that some referred to her as Mummy.

Members who served then recall how they did things not for the presidency, but because as they claimed, Mummy begged them for it. Her shocking exit in late 2013 unequivocally marked a turning point in the relationship between the Jonathan administration and the legislature, because President Jonathan never again stepped feet into the premises of the legislature after she left.

It is against the background of the key role played by presidential liaisons that Senator Enang is now advised to begin to retool his arsenal for the crunch battle expected as the National Assembly enters the key process of altering key sections of the Constitution. Few expect President Buhari not to raise objections to some items churned out by the Senator Ekweremadu led committee. So, a fight is bound to occur soon irrespective of the alleged thawing of the ice between Saraki and Buhari.