The Democratic Front (TDF) has welcomed what it described as great insight by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on the relationship between the Executive and Legislative arms of government.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo, TDF argued that the National Assembly is expected to act independently but in cooperation with the Executive as it fulfils its checks and balances role.
Where both arms fulfill their distinctive roles, the Executive will deliver good governance to the people, and there will be development being the reward of democracy.
It said: “We posit that Senate President Godswill Akpabio was on point when he said in a yet-to-be-aired documentary that federal lawmakers were not primarily elected to engage the executive in confrontation and fisticuffs but to work in collaboration in the common good of the nation.
“We hold that besides the need to prevent tyranny and abuse of power, promote accountability, encourage checks and balances, and protect individual rights, the principle of separation of power would not have been necessarily embedded in democracy.
“The perception in certain quarters about the role of lawmakers in Nigeria, as agents of perpetual political opposition against the executive arm, is outrightly wrong and undemocratic.
“The distasteful and unacceptable description of the current National Assembly, by the opposition, as a rubber stamp on account of symbiotic partnership with the Tinubu-led Executive Arm of government, is ridiculous, baseless and uninformed.
“The irony is that we have seen a similar relationship between the Senate of Senator David Mark and the then President Goodluck Jonathan, but we are not aware that the Senate was tagged a rubber stamp
“TDF believes that the speedy landmark of infrastructural development and macroeconomic reforms that have been achieved in the last two years was primarily enabled by the mutual understanding and consensus on issues of national importance between the Legislators and the Executive.
“We, however, note that the relationship has not been as rosy in the last two years because we are aware that a few ministerial appointees were rejected. It is also worthy to note the heated political debate in the two chambers of the National Assembly over the National Tax Reform Bill.
“This, for us, reflects the independence of the Federal Legislature as enshrined in the constitution and has paved the way for unhindered passage of numerous bills in the last two years.”
TDF urged the Senate President and his colleagues in the 10th National Assembly to sustain their philosophy of non-confrontation so that Nigeria can continue to be seen as an enviable model of democracy in Africa
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