NASS-EXECUTIVE ROW: It will be suicidal to threaten NASS- Osinbajo

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday refuted media reports that he threatened the National Assembly, and said it was not possible for him to do that considering the size of the legislative arm of government.

He said it would be suicidal for him to threaten the National Assembly under the leadership of Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

Osinbajo stated this when he spoke while declaring open the 16th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) in Abuja.

“On a lighter note, I don’t know the experiences of presiding officers from other nations present here on the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature by the press and the social media.

“Here in Nigeria, what makes news is conflict between the Executive and the Legislature. The more dramatic it is, the more newsworthy it becomes. If you follow things in the media, you’ll be confronted by the exclusive and breaking news stories, reporting several different issues of conflicts between the Executive and the Legislature.

“I’ll pick just one. There’s one of our popular newspapers that had the caption: ‘Acting President threatens leadership of the National Assembly.’

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“Now, if you see the combined sizes of the Senate President and the Right Honourable Speaker compared to mine, it’ll be suicidal to threaten either of them, let alone the two of them,” Osinbajo said.

Issues over the appointment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s chairman, Ibrahim Magu, have especially a major bone of contention between the executive and legislative arms of government.

While the lawmakers had on two occasions refused to approve Magu’s appointment as substantive EFCC chairman and had asked the presidency to sack him, the executive had however insisted that Magu must continue as EFCC boss.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

 

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