10th assembly: Era of legislature standing against executive long gone, says Dogara

Yakubu Dogara, former speaker of the house of representatives, says the era of the legislature standing against the “tyranny” of the executive is long gone.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Bola Tinubu had endorsed Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs, to be senate president.

However, there was opposition to the APC’s nominations from other interested lawmakers. 

Abdulaziz Yari, a former governor of Zamfara, and Orji Uzor Kalu, chief whip of the senate, had insisted on contesting the position – but Akpabio eventually emerged senate president. 

The former speaker said members of the executive should desist from interfering in the election of presiding officers of the national assembly.

“Taking the position we are advocating requires resistance. Now, resistance is not by comfort, it entails suffering and sacrifice and when you resist, you tend to lose a lot,” he said.

“Any democracy that cuts itself off from checks and balances severs its lifeline and then bleeds to death.

“Why should someone who has been elected into an executive position seek to control the emergence of the leadership of the parliament that is supposed to be independent?

“Without sounding a bit pessimistic, I believe that the days of standing up to tyranny in the legislature have long faded. These days, no road to Damascus moment here. I think redemption or salvation is very far.

“In most cases, as legislators, some of us who have stayed there for long know those who have the onions and trust and capacity to exercise leadership on our behalf. 

“When it comes to determining this, whether from the point of view of the executive or political parties, in most cases, what they [executive] do is just sit down there without proper consultation with the membership and say this person must be the presiding officer, based on their own completely extrinsic consideration, without regard to the feeling of members.”