The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, has criticized Nigerian State Houses of Assembly for allowing the executives to dictate the tone of deliberations and passage of bills into law.
Enang, who had represented his people in the defunct Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, however, disparaged the prevalence of what he described as Ete abodie (whatever the governor says) politics in Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.
He recalled as ‘’When I was in the state House of Assembly, Dr. Emmanuel Akpanobong, Dr. Ita Udosen, Sen. Effiong Bob, Grace Edim Inyang, as Deputy speaker, Aniefiok Ekpo, a lot of us, we used to ask the late Governor Akpan Isemin serious questions. He would bring a bill for a budget. We would turn it down.
‘’But after that, because there was no pure independence. And since we had independence at that time, independence did not give us money. We operated under Okon Inyang, as at that time as director of budget, Umana Okon Umana was a deputy director of budget in the budget department. That was a good time in the legislative affairs.’’
The maverick politician who granted interview to a privately owned radio station in Akwa Ibom, Inspiration Radio, Uyo, stated ‘’ At the state level, you may think the relationship between the state Houses of Assembly and the Governors is cordial. No, it is not cordial. It is there the governors take the Houses of Assembly by way of servitude, and they take the governors as their parastatals. The Houses of Assembly unlike the Senate are legislatures cannot stand up to ask a governor a question on any matter. From 1999, the Houses of Assembly have been under very serious humiliation.’’
Enang, who is also a three-time member, House of Representatives and a one-member in the Senate, remarked ‘’In fact, the Ministries of Works and Finance, are rated higher than the House of Assembly itself, and the commissioners in-charge of these ministries, are rated higher than the Speaker in terms of honour and regard, but the constitution and the law, and the protocol, place the Speaker higher.
‘’That is because of the way the governors treat the Houses of Assembly. That is why I am happy with the Houses of Assembly now, because under President Buhari, we have granted autonomy to Houses of Assembly, autonomy to the judiciary, so that they can have their own money and spend, and can provide the same checks and balance between the executive and the legislature at that level.’’
On the frosty relationship between the National Assembly and President Muhammadu Buhari, the Senator dispelled the idea ‘’the relationship is very cordial; it’s very constitutional. What you are having at the National Assembly is pure practice of separation of powers- where the Executive is questioned by the Legislature as to why this is not properly done, or why have you done this. And the Executive will say, look legislature, you are crossing your boundary, don’t do executive function, I will do the executive function; you do the law making function. So, there is pure practice of separation of powers at the national level.’’
According to him, efforts are being made to smoothen the seeming frosty relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly. Things are moving smoothly.
The Senator warned ‘’Let me tell you, I tell the Nigerian public that anytime that you see the executive and the legislature working hands in gloves, holding hands like lovers, carry cane and beat them because both of them are supposed to be checking each other’s excesses and when the other one seems to misbehave, the other will say no. When there is any extra body expenditure, the legislature is supposed to say to the Executive, Mr. President or Governor, who authorized you to take that money?
‘’And the executive will now say that there was an emergency, I have written to you, I have called your leadership, please I did not take it illegally, this is the Bill seeking your clearance, this is what I want to do with it, this is the Bill which I had earlier presented to you. So, there is no problem.’’
