Former All Progressives Congress (APC) vice chairman in the North-West, Salihu Lukman, has criticised members of the 10th National Assembly, claiming they do not adequately represent Nigerian interests.
The former leader of the APC claimed that the two houses of the National Assembly solely answer to each other, characterising this as a threat to the democracy of the country.
“The point is, Nigerian democracy, as it is, is not functionally representing the interest of citizens largely because the parliament represented by the two chambers of the National Assembly – Senate and House of Representatives – have involuntarily submitted themselves to the narcissistic control of the president,” he said in a statement.
“Until and unless the parliament can free itself from the president, it will almost be impossible for it to develop the capacity of defending and protecting the interests of Nigerians.”
Lukman expressed remorse for the circumstances that have led to the current state of affairs, namely the loss of moral authority of the National Assembly, its leadership, and its members to oversee the actions of the executive branch of government.
He asserted that the president and other members of the executive branch essentially control how the parliament operates, treating parliamentarians as subordinate to them.
“Partly because of the faint or almost complete absence of courageous voices in the National Assembly, the President and the members of the executive body of government are practically getting away with virtually every wrong decision that is injurious to the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens.
“A good example is the impulsive declaration of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to end petroleum subsidy without any clear plan, followed by another impulsive decision to float the Naira exchange rate against other international currencies with hardly any plan.
“How did we get to this abysmally low level of legislative practice whereby it can almost be said that in Nigeria, democracy equates darkness? Without going into details, combinations of many factors, which have taken place over the last 25 years are responsible.
“Some of the factors include the reality whereby systematically the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly have been downgraded to the status of appointees of the President.
“That was largely made possible by the fact that the party machinery or organs, which are supposed to serve as the platforms for negotiations have been weakened and also subordinated to the President,” Lukman stated.
