The National Assembly would not tolerate public display of rascality by appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari and some civil servants, President of the Senate, Mr Ahmed Lawan, said on Thursday.
Lawan, who disclosed this while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with the President, said the National Assembly is concerned about the recent conduct of some government officials at the National Assembly.
The Senate President, who briefed journalists in company of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, said the current National Assembly has had a cordial relationship with the executive arm in the interest of the citizens.
He said the cordial relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government had been particularly forged to deliver quality leadership to Nigerians.
He said though the National Assembly would not continue to tolerate the attitudinal display from appointees of President Buhari, the legislature would not define its relationship with the President by the misdemeanor of one appointee.
“If you are an appointee of the President, you are supposed to be reflective of the attitude of the President towards the National Assembly…The National Assembly will take exception to any attitude or disposition that is not in support of the harmony in the relationship between the two arms of government.
“I think the relationship between this National Assembly and the executive arm of government, particularly Mr President, is beyond one employee of the President.
“I don’t know what you mean by that, but let me say that this National Assembly has been very supportive, very friendly with the Executive arm of government and there’s no doubt in my mind that the President has been quite supportive of the Legislature as well.
“You will recall that in the processing of the budget last year, Mr President made a very categorical statement that no minister at that time should travel out of Nigeria without going to the National Assembly to defend his or her budget. That had never been done before and that was in support and in almost every family engagement the President would commend the members of the National Assembly. So Mr President is in full support of the National Assembly and what we do.
“We have come to see Mr President on behalf of the members of the National Assembly and this is supposed to be a continuous engagement between the Legislature and the Executive arm of government.
“Whatever we’ll do to ensure that the administration works for Nigerians, we will do that and this is to enhance the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature to commit ourselves to ensuring that we work together.
“Both the Legislature and the Executive must at all times work in the interest of the people of this country, we cannot afford not to do this because essentially, government is for people to have service and the essence of this particular visit is to ensure that the legislature, the National Assembly and the Executive arm of government, led by Mr President, continue to work together to ensure that the relationship that we have, which has been working for this administration to deliver services to Nigerians is sustained.
“I believe the outcome of this meeting is going to improve the relationship between the two arms of government. I imagine that at the end of the day the trajectory of ensuring very good and purposeful operational way of doing things between the two arms will continue.
“We have had a very good engagement with Mr President. Mr President has always respected the Legislature, he has always commended the National Assembly members for always being there to ensure that the requests by the Executive, in the national interest, are processed and we are sure that every member of the National Assembly has always been there to ensure that we do the right thing for this country and Mr President is in full support of our position that this relationship must be sustained at all times for the benefit of the people of Nigeria,” he said.
