Disturbed by the increasing leadership crisis in the National Assembly, former President of the Senate, Senator Ken Nnamani, on Monday came down hard on the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisting that party supremacy which the ruling party now seeks to enforce, is not practiced on the floor of the senate.
The former President of the Senate spoke at a forum where the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Umar Na’Abba, also blamed former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for the leadership crisis that rocked the National Assembly between 1999 and 2007, saying that the former president mistook democracy for military rule.
He said that Obasanjo, as a civilian president, refused to respect the tenets of democracy including independence of the legislature.
According Nnamani the leadership crisis in the National Assembly would have been avoided if only the ruling APC had learnt from the mistakes of the past in the election of the presiding officers, adding that the party’s supremacy which the party seeks to enforce, negates the doctrine of separation of power and independence of the legislature.
Nnamani described the leadership crisis rocking the National Assembly as the price the APC would have to pay for not putting its house in order before the election of principal officers.
Both past leaders of the National Assembly spoke at the public presentation of a book, Nigeria Fourth Republic National Assembly, written by Dr Austin Uganwa.
The former Senate president told the audience that it was wrong for the ruling APC to have fixed a meeting with the senators on the same day that the 8th National Assembly was proclaimed by president Muhammadu Buhari.
He said that APC senators were supposed to have gotten seated before other lawmakers on the floor of the senate on the day of inauguration, instead, “they went for a meeting at the International conference centre, a place that is far away from the National Assembly.”
Nnamani further noted that APC senators ordinarily should only implement the wish of the party if the party had put its house together before the Inauguration Day.
According to him, “party supremacy is not practised on the floor of the senate, the senate chamber is not a party secretariat.”
He specifically asked the party leaders to take the blames for the woes of the party and not to blame it on Senators for electing leaders of their choice.
The former senate president said that he would soon open up on the aborted third term project of former president, Obasanjo.
He regretted that the major actors in the failed project are now beginning to deny any hand in the project.
The book presentation was graced by former lawmakers, especially the Nabba men, in the fourth House of Representatives.
-Daily Independent
