President
Goodluck Jonathan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr.
Aminu Tambuwal, on Monday openly disagreed on the concept of separation
of powers and budget preparation.
The President said although there was a
theoretical separation, the Executive and the Legislature must work
together if democracy must be meaningful. But the Speaker accused the
Executive of refusing to sign some bills passed by the National
Assembly.
They spoke at the 2012 Democracy Day
National Symposium titled “Our Democracy: Progress and Challenges” at
the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.
Tambuwal said the non-signing of the
bills by the President had made the process of lawmaking very
cumbersome. He added that the ‘anomaly’ had also led to a situation
where some of the affected bills had to be re-introduced in the
parliament.
He also faulted the disposition of the executive to the roles being played by the National Assembly in budget presentation.
Tambuwal said, “Another challenge is the
issue of assent to bills passed by the National Assembly. In as much as
it is the constitutional duty of the legislature to pass laws, it is
equally the constitutional responsibility of Mr. President to assent to
them.
“It is however disturbing to note that
the Executive has shied away from this responsibility by not assenting
to bills passed by the National Assembly. This makes the legislative
process cumbersome because some of these bills have to be re-introduced de novo. This
is not a healthy situation for the Executive-Legislature relationship
neither does it portray our democracy in good light in the comity of
nations.
“Representation is the third function of
the legislature; it denotes the power of the people to either act
directly or through their representatives. In this regard, I wish to
allude to the issue of budgeting.
“The Executive arm of government is made
up of only two elected functionaries to wit the President and the
Vice-President whereas the National Assembly is a body of 469 elected
functionaries. The adage that ‘two heads are better than one’ is
reinforced by that which says ‘he who wears the shoe knows better where it pinches’ and both favour the position of the elected representatives.
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