REPS HAVE DERAILED, SAYS NA’ABBA

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Gali Na’Abba has accused members of the Lower House of loss of focus and derailing from their primary Na’Abba, who is a delegate to the ongoing National Conference in Abuja, said in an interview with Nigerian Pilot that he had noted with regret that the quality of loyalty to the leadership of the House which he enjoyed a couple of years ago as the helmsman of the legislature, was no longer the same with the present crop of lawmakers because they are more loyalty to their godfathers and political parties.
“What cannot be taken away from the House of Representatives when I was there as Speaker was its independence and that independence was a product of the members’ unflinching loyalty to the leadership and at the same time being independent of themselves,” he remarked.
According to him, “They came to the House independently; of course, we have situations where some members were sponsored by certain godfathers, that you cannot overrule, but largely and substantially members of that House were independent in their thinking. Today, it is not the same, even though the current Speaker is doing his best to establish independence of the House and because of the situation he has in hand I cannot say that has been very, very successful.”
Na’Abba recalled that it was because of his belief in the independency of the legislature that former President Olusegun Obasanjo fought him throughout his tenure as Speaker and he enjoyed the support of his colleagues to win that struggle.
He noted that the limitation the current Speaker (Aminu Tambuwal) faces is that the House cannot exercise that independence, adding that his inability to stamp his feet on the ground and flow with his party on issues that it champions is part of the defects he has to contend with.
On the seemingly indifference of some federal legislators to the convocation of the National Conference, Na’Abba said there was no reason for such altercation between the National Assembly and the Conference.
He said: “Members of the National Assembly are patriotic Nigerians who are representing their constituencies in the lawmaking body and members of this conference are equally respected Nigerians who are concerned with the way and manner this country has been run and want to assist to midwife a system that will substantially lessen the tension in this country.
“Therefore, there are a lot of things that this conference can learn from NASS and there are equally lots of things that members of NASS can learn from the confab delegates and so I don’t see any conflicting interest in the two bodies.”
Source: Nigerian Pilot