Salihu Mohammed Lukman, a former national vice chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the North-West, said that Nigerians have been let down by the 10th National Assembly, which is headed by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajuddeen Abbas.
In a statement released on Tuesday, 02/07/2024, Lukman stated that the 10th Assembly had failed to force the executive branch to act in the best interests of Nigerians.
The Former APC National Working Committee (NWC) member Lukman stated: The President and members of the executive body of government are essentially getting away with practically every wrong decision that is detrimental to the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens, in part because of the faint or almost complete absence of courageous voices in the National Assembly.
“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.”
