Current National Assembly not representing interest of Nigerians – Lukman

Salihu Lukman, a former All Progressives Congress (APC) national vice chairman for the northwest, has bemoaned the fact that Nigerians’ interests are not being adequately represented in the current National Assembly.

The fact that the two houses of the National Assembly are only answerable to each other presents a risk to the nation’s democracy, according to a statement released by Lukman on Tuesday.

He pointed out that the management of monies allotted to the National Assembly is anticipated to be overseen by the Public Accounts Committees in both houses.

The former head of the APC emphasized that these problems in some way contribute to the current situation, in which the National Assembly has lost the moral authority to control how the executive branch of government operates.

With that, he continued, they operate nearly as if they are employees of the executive branch, essentially at the whim of the President and other members of the executive arm.

He claims that by using all of these inducements, the President and the Executive arm’s members were able to smoothly activate the “gaslight,” which forces members to accept and believe any suggestion, even when it goes against the interests of the public. They became liabilities after acting as the machinery that injured people, and as a result, they were eventually discarded.

Lukman stated: “The point is, Nigerian democracy, as it is, is not functionally representing the interest of citizens largely because the parliament represented by the two chambers of the National Assembly – Senate and House of Representatives – have involuntarily submitted themselves to the narcissistic control of the president.

“Until and unless the parliament can free itself from the president, it will almost be impossible for it to develop the capacity of defending and protecting the interests of Nigerians.”