Abdullahi Adamu, the senator representing Nasarawa West at the National Assembly, has accused his fellow APC senators of sabotaging the Muhammadu Buhari government.
He made this known in a statement he issued late Tuesday, shortly after Muhammadu Buhari communicated to the legislators that he was declining assent to the newly amended electoral act.
“I believe we need to retrace our steps and reconsider our stand as legislators on matters of public interest,” Adamu stated.
“Our party, the APC, has the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, yet we hold the executive prisoner of politics that are unhealthy for the polity.
“It is such a terrible irony that we sabotage our own government by refusing to do our part in support of the executive.”
Adamu lamented the face-off between the Senate and the Executive, which had resulted in the non-approval of several presidential appointments.
The Senate had twice rejected Buhari’s appointment of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the EFCC. Also, the appointment of Bolaji Owasonoye as Chairman of the ICPC is yet to be confirmed by the Senate, thereby preventing him from assuming office.
Adamu said the consequence of the face-off “is that the public has nicknamed the President and his administration ‘go-slow’”.
“The people gave us the mandate as a party to deliver. With our control of the executive and the National Assembly, there is no reason why the government cannot acquit itself and fulfill the yearnings of the people,” he wrote.
“Perhaps, while we are consumed with sabotaging the administration and stabbing one another in the back, we forget that in less than a year from now, we shall be required to seek the people’s re-validation of our mandate to sit in these hallowed chambers. What shall we tell them?”
Adamu and 10 other senators had staged a walkout on the day the amendment of the electoral act bill was approved by the Senate. They pointed out that lawmakers should not be seen as interfering with the independence of the legislature.
“Me and some of my colleagues were opposed to this amendment on the grounds that it is not the duty of the Senate to determine the order of elections,” he stated.
“It had never been part of the Electoral Act and there is no need to deny the commission the right to do its duty as it deems fit. Happily, I am not alone in taking this stand. Some of my colleagues are opposed to it too.”