The grin on Senate President Adolphus Wabara and his fellow legislators as President Olusegun Obasanjo laid the foundation of the third phase project of the National Assembly complex last Thursday was easily suggestive of the harmony that now exists between both branches of government.
When invitation cards supposedly endorsed by President Obasanjo inviting legislators of the National Assembly, the press and other stakeholders to the foundation laying ceremony of the N25 billion National Assembly office complex were issued, muttering of a total breach in the separation of powers were discernible.
What right did the President, the head of the executive branch, have to invite the legislators to the foundation laying ceremony of their own building, some wondered.
Some members of the House of Representatives and the Senate boycotted the ceremony on the ground that the President had no business laying the foundation of their office complex.
While majority of the legislators stayed away from the ceremony, the executive branch of government led by President Obasanjo, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and several ministers made a show of the event.
FCT minister Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, the main executor of the project, fresh from his latest face off with the legislators made a subdued but well choreographed show of the ceremony. His arrival at the premises after the quiet arrival of Senator Wabara, received a loud applause from the crowd of National Assembly office workers and FCT staff.
It was his event as the master of ceremonies, Salihu Kindo, popularly known as Oga Driver, a staff of the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory, repeatedly proclaimed at the ceremony. No one knows what was in his heart as he went about in his crisp clean black suit that day, but suggestions that he was capable of building a House for ‘‘fools’’ was rather fascinating.
The determination of the President to lay the foundations of the new office complex was to some, rather suggestive of the administration’s readiness to have a complete sway in the affairs of the legislators, physically and otherwise.
Having had his way in installing most of the leadership of the two houses, it really could not have looked out of place for the President to see to the personal comfort of his men.
“The delay in the development of Phase lll of the National Assembly complex has not been deliberate; it has been borne out of Government’s desire to ensure that our legislators get offices befitting of their exalted status and stature,” President Obasanjo said at the ceremony last Thursday.” We have therefore taken our time not only to come up with the most functional and best possible design but also to ensure that the construction and furnishing are of the highest possible quality at the most competitive price.” With those words, the President dismissed past insinuations that he was personally contemptuous of the well being of the legislators.
However, skeptics would ask if the President would have said the same words were the late Senator Chuba Okadigbo and Alhaji Ghali Na‘Abba still in control of the National Assembly.
The logic of the President laying the foundation of the new National Assembly office complex was derived from the understanding reached after the senate contract scandal of 2000 when it was agreed that all physical development of the National Assembly would be left in the hands of the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory.
The legislature with its lack of capacity was not in position to award such development contracts.
Beneath his assertion of his interest in the physical well being of the legislators, doubts about the President’s own interest in building the National Assembly in his own image has never been doubted.
In words and action, the presidency has demonstrated its interest in having a sway over the National Assembly. It did so when it derailed Senator Okadigbo’s first attempt at the leadership of the Senate in 1999 and has repeatedly demonstrated its interest in its repeated efforts in sustaining the present leadership.
Not only was the President personally involved in saving Senator Wabara from the 86 wolves that nearly ate him raw last May, Vanguard has learnt of recent efforts by very, very top villa officials in undermining the alleged plot by some Senators to undermine Wabara over his inclinations on the labour bill.
Senators have disclosed how they were phoned by one BIG OGA asking of their intentions in the event the labour bill saga was to come to the fore.
A number of the legislators with future political ambitions have understandably constrained themselves to accommodate the Senate leadership, if not, then out of consideration of the capacity of the villa to undermine their own future political quests.
At the inauguration of the present National Assembly on June 5, 2003, President Obasanjo to all intents and purposes had warned the legislators of his determination to have the sway over the legislature in his own single item agenda of one Nigeria.
Speaking against the background of the raucous relationship that existed with the first National Assembly of the fourth republic, Obasanjo had said then:“The definition –– and the use –– of the instrument of ‘oversight function’ to mean attempts to extort and blackmail, will simply not work. Furthermore, impeachment, or even the threat of it, as a means of arms-twisting and not as a result of some patent constitutional breach on the part of the Executive, will destabilize not only the President, but the entire country, whilst making a mockery of our notion of democracy and democratic processes.”
Continuing in his riot act, the President said:
“And let me say it here and now, this Executive will not succumb to blackmail, threats or intimidation, under any circumstance.”
For most of its existence, the Wabara Senate and the Masari House have against odds and sometimes at the altar of the mandate of their constituencies endeavoured to keep within the bonds set for them by the executive branch.
That is why the National Assembly and the Wabara Senate in particular has to all intents and purposes endeavoured to keep abreast of the administration’s legislative agenda and keep mute to some of the failings of the administration.
The Senate has speedily passed most of the bills forwarded by the executive, confirmed choice nominees of the President, and even when it dared question the rationale of a former minister (Prof. Borishade) for a second term ministerial office, it quickly swallowed its pride and endorsed him for office.
Against popular outcry against the repeated increases in the prices of petroleum products, the Senate has been quiet, carrying along as citizens of one of the world’s most endowed countries languish under hardship.
It is, however, worthy that in kowtowing to the rules set by the President that the President has found it worthy not to play up the legislators as his errand boys or as fools.
He has most times portrayed the legislature as an independent arm, even when he and nearly all know the dependence of the legislature on the villa.
President Obasanjo has demonstrated a commendable maturity of not behaving like one of his most affectionate disciples, who tagged the Senators as fools.
One instrument of the President in keeping the legislature in check is funding as revealed by Speaker Aminu Masari and Senator Wabara at last Thursday’s ceremony.
Above all other factors, the capacity of the executive arm to control the funding of the legislature is seen as one of the reasons why the National Assembly would always be made to kowtow to the aspirations of whoever controls the presidential villa.
It was thus worthwhile that both Speaker Masari and the Senate President in their remarks last Thursday fervently pleaded for independent funding of the legislature.
“It is trite knowledge that the Legislative Branch is the first arm of Government, yet it is the weakest, the most misunderstood, the most grossly underdeveloped and the least funded among the three arms of Government,” Alhaji Masari said.
Senator Wabara accentuated Masari’s plea by calling for the funding of the legislature from the first line charge of the consolidated fund of the federation.
As he went to lay the foundation stone of the building, President Obasanjo surprised no one when he ignored their plea, after all, no one expects him to throw away the instrument that has proved useful in building the image of the National Assembly to what it is now.
