The governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has said the lack of cohesion of the Federal Government encouraged the current separatist agitations in the country.
He stated this yesterday in a paper delivered at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Abuja, themed: “Executive and Legislative Relations; Gaps, Challenges and Prospects.”
The paper presentation was part of a seminar for participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 10, 2017 of the institute.
He said agitators for breaking up the country and or restructuring of the Federation took advantage of the lack of cohesion at the center.
He said, “if there was cohesion between the Executive and Legislative this would not have come up,” adding that, “the cacophony from these groups is because there are no great institutions.”
Akeredolu noted that the consistency of the fighting between the Legislative arm of government and the Executive has assumed a frightening level.
He also blamed the All Progressive Congress (APC) for initially not putting its house in order to determine the leadership of the National Assembly.
He said the Supreme Court must determine the final interpretation of the constitutional provision that allow the President to appoint the chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), without confirmation by the Senate.
He said this must be done to avoid reoccurrence of a similar crisis.
Also speaking at the seminar, the Chief Whip of the Federal House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa who represented Speaker Yakubu Dogara said the perceived faceoff between the Executive and Legislative Arms of Government should be viewed as good for our democracy.
He said this is to let Nigerians know that the Legislative and Executive Arms of government are tussling for the good interest of the people.
He said in spite of the outcry over the ‘padding’ controversy of the 2016 Budget, over 90 percent of the constituency projects in that budget has been executed.
He said because of this, and the lobbying tactics employed by the Executive Arm of Government the 2017 Budget was passed by the National Assembly with no controversy.
He insisted that the Budget is an Act of the National Assembly, therefore any breach of the Act by the Executive is actionable and an impeachable offense.
