The Federal Executive
Council (FEC) yesterday raised a committee to interface with the
legislative arm of government to mediate and resolve outstanding issues
between the two arms of government.
The committee which was constituted during the meeting is headed by Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo, with membership drawn from the rank of
ministers who were former senators, former members of the House of
Representatives, the Presidential Liaison Officer to the Senate, Ita
Enang and other ministers who have personal relationships with the
senators.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the
Executive was concerned about the frosty relationship between the two
arms of government.
“In any democracy, it is a continuous struggle for balancing between the
Executive and the Legislature because each of them are creatures of the
law. We must strive at all times to ensure that there is that balance,
amity and smooth relationship.
“Just today (yesterday) at the Federal Executive Council meeting, the
issue was discussed and a committee is already working on ensuring that
we resolve all these outstanding issues,” he said.
The relationship between the Executive and Legislative arms over the
months have been characterized by intrigues and wranglings.
The Senate’s anger has to do with its recent face-off with key members
of the executive, particularly the Comptroller-General of Nigerian
Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (retd), the Secretary to
Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr David Babachir Lawal and the
acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
Ibrahim Magu.
While Babachir had ignored the Senate’s invitations, Ali was walked out
of the Red Chamber for failing to appear in uniform.
The face-off took a turn for the worse when the Senate on Tuesday gave
Buhari the marching order to relieve Magu of his job. It vowed not to
consider or confirm the 27 names of Resident Electoral Commissioners
(RECs) or treat any matter from the Executive if Buhari failed to
respect the outcome of their decision on the anti-graft boss. It
suspended confirmatory hearing on the REC nominees for two weeks to
enable the senate discuss with the executive.
Adopting a motion sponsored by Peter Nwaoboshi from Delta State, the
Senate directed its president to within two weeks, convey its position
about the non-replacement of Magu to Buhari and report back to allow it
take further legislative actions on the matter.
The presidency has since reacted through Senator Ita Enang, the
president’s Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, saying it
would respect the decision of the lawmakers and toe the path of
dialogue.
“We will not question the power of the senators to take decision on how
they want to conduct nomination hearings. We will not go fighting with
them,” Enang said. – The Sun.
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