By Deborah Hassan
The Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Toby Okechukwu, has asked the Executive to stop taking every attempt by the Parliament to address national challenges as demeaning and a reason to “flex muscles”.
Okechukwu was reacting to a statement credited to the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), that the National Assembly lacked powers to summon the president.
Recall that the House had last week summoned President Muhammadu Buhari to brief the Parliament on the state of security in Nigeria after 43 rice farmers were slaughtered in their farm in Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents.
The exchange between the two top government functionaries came up as a result of uncertainty surrounding Buhari’s appearance before a joint session of the National Assembly.
Citing relevant sections of the Constitution which empowers the National Assembly to summon the President, the Deputy Minority Leader said, “Without making undue efforts to win an argument, Section 89 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended clearly empowers the Senate or the House of Representatives or a committee appointed in accordance with Section 62 of the Constitution to procure evidence, written or oral and to summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence at any place.
“Therefore, the attempt to pressurise Mr President not to appear clearly shows that some highly placed political actors in the ruling party are placing politics over the protection of lives of Nigerians. The APC is evidently fiddling with propaganda and politics while Nigeria burns.”
“It is evident from APC’s position as made public by the AGF that the safety of Nigerian citizens would take a back seat in the next few days, while the argument over who is right or wrong unfortunately takes the front seat.”