Bauchi state governor, Mohammed Abubakar has said governors of the All Progressives Congress, APC, would not delve into issues regarding the current budget-padding scandal in the House of Representatives.
This is despite the outcome of a recent meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari where the governors pledged to wade into the National Assembly crises.
Abubakar stated this during a chat with journalists in Abuja.
Though Speaker Dogara is from Bauchi State, the governor said the issue in the House was a criminal matter and should be so treated, explaining that the APC governors, who had since dissolved into several committees, would only make interventions on issues that were political.
“I assure you that we are not going to delve into cases that are before the courts or tribunal. We are not going to delve into the current issue of the moment. We are only going to touch on the political issues pertaining to the National Assembly. What is before the court, those of us who are lawyers, know that it is subjudice and the current issue is just coming up and it is not politics. As far as I am concerned, if any proof is found to any of the allegations, these are criminal offences.
So, there is no way any committee of governors can delve into that, I assure you,” he stated.
Abubakar, however, conceded that it had not been easy for the APC to shed the toga of its long years as opposition, saying the plethora of crises in the party was only a reflection of that. He said the party was still learning the ropes of governance but that efforts were underway to resolve the crisis.
The governor also stated that even in the Bauchi state chapter of the party, there is a problem between party and her representatives at the federal level.
He said; “The APC is a party that has come to power recently and it has come to power from an opposition political party and I must confess that we are experiencing teething problems in the APC and being in government is a new phenomenon. I cannot say that things are going on smoothly and that is why we (APC governors) paid a visit to Mr President and discuss the need for governors to be called upon to delve into the problems in the party with a view to reinvigorating it so that it can keep performing as the party of the government in power.
So, we are trying to address this issue and Mr President has graciously allowed us and we have formed committees in the APC Governors’ Forum to address this issue and others bedevilling the ruling party.
“At the state level, there are problems particularly with our representatives at the centre and what I always say is, the most beautiful form of government is constitutional democracy especially where the constitution is written as we have in Nigeria.
The beauty is that the functions and powers of every level of government has been stipulated in the constitution. So, if we are going to abide by the functions and powers allocated to us in the constitution, there would not be any area of friction but because the APC is new to governance, we are having what I earlier called teething problems but we are addressing all of them even the problem in Bauchi state which made headlines are not insurmountable and even as I speak, there are moves to address these problems in the APC in Bauchi State
