The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has criticised 8th National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, saying the country’s development was stagnated in the past years due to face-off between the executive and legislature.
The BMO, through its Chairman and Secretary, Niyi Akinsiju and Cassidy Madueke respectively, in a statement jointly signed and made available yesterday, was reacting to the comment credited to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, that he was not elected to be fighting the executive.
Gbajabiamila said criticism that the 9th Assembly was a rubber-stamp to the executive was not fair, while saying that “the fact that the legislature was on the same page with the executive on issues of national interests did not make it a rubber-stamp.”
However, the group, which noted that it is in support of the Speaker’s stance, explained that it is a wrong notion to say “belligerence and rancour between the executive and a stubborn National Assembly is the benchmark for a booming democracy”
“The unfortunate experiences of stagnated government processes that in turn slowed down the nation’s development as witnessed in the Saraki and Dogara led 8th National Assembly is still fresh in our minds. It is certainly not the path any Nigerian serious about the country’s development would seek we return to.
“Critical laws were slowed down or not passed at all; appropriation laws were delayed for no good reason; games that were counter-productive to national development were being played by the 8th Assembly leadership; sensitive approvals were met with nonchalance; these and worse were the legacy of the 8th Assembly under the leadership of Senator Saraki and Speaker Dogara. Nigerians do not want to see any of these again. And that is what the Senator Ahmad Lawan and Speaker Gbajabiamila led 9th Assembly are assuring us we would not return to,” the statement read.
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