NATIONAL: Executive, legislature won’t disagree to please anybody, says Lawan

SENATE President Ahmad Lawan has said the 9th National Assembly will continue to work together with the Executive to ensure Nigerians enjoy the dividends of democracy.

He apparently said this in response to the claim in some quarters that the 9th Assembly has become a rubber stamp for the Executive.

Lawan said this when he hosted a delegation from Adamawa State who were in his office in Abuja to show appreciation to the National Assembly for converting Modibbo Adama University, Yola, into a conventional university that can run medical programmes alongside social and management sciences.

The delegation was led by Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed and the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdullahi Lima Tukur.

Lawan said the conversion of the university was the outcome of a collaboration between the Legislature and the Executive arms of government.

The Senate President said the Ninth National Assembly would be judged fairly by Nigerians for its pro-people legislations, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed the country’s development pace.

“I will take this opportunity to commend Mr. President for assenting to that Bill. This is what we call Cooperative Governance. We work with the Executive to ensure that the Nigerian people benefit from democracy.

“We have set our eyes on our target of making Nigeria better and making Nigerians safer. What matters to us is what we are able to achieve at the end of the day.

“History will judge us very fairly, and without sounding immodest, I will like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Ninth National Assembly.”

The Senate President stressed that the secret of the achievements recorded since the inception of the Bihari administration is the unity between the two arms of government.

He added that it’s not a norm for the Legislature and the Executive to always be at loggerheads over national issues.

“The Ninth National Assembly has achieved so much between 2019 till date for the benefit of this country, despite the pandemic. And the secret is unity and harmony.

“We have achieved unity amongst ourselves in the National Assembly environment between the Senate and the House and, of course, we have achieved harmony in the work between the National Assembly and the Executive. That’s the essence of governance, anyway.

“When we need to disagree, we will do so. But if we have no reason to disagree, we will not do that because we want to please anybody,” he said.

Speaking on the security and economic challenges Nigeria has been facing in the past few years, Lawan said recent developments showed an improvement in efforts made by the Armed Forces towards addressing the spate of insecurity in parts of the country