NASS, Presidency Relationship Not Cordial – Saraki

Speaking on his first year in office while speaking to some journalists in Abuja, Saraki explained that the lukewarm nature of the relationship may have to do with the regime being new in office.

“In terms of relationship between the legislature and the executive, in all honesty, I think we need to improve on it. There is no doubt about that, I think, in all democracy the relationship between the executive and the legislature is very important but again, don’t forget this is the beginning of a new government; it takes time for people to understand each other and to work best in the interest of country. “I think that is important, it is better than how it was about 365 days ago and I’m confident that as time goes on that will happen,” he said.

On whether he will seek a second term, the Senate President noted that, “I think is too early to talk about seeking a second term as senate president, because the issue is not in my hands, you decide at the end of your period.

“First of all, you assess yourself before you put yourself forth, you have to ask yourself, have I done well enough to deserve the confidence of the people, and then other factors can come into it.

“Our focus now is to leave a very good legacy to be able to say that this eighth senate was different from the way things were done in the past. This eighth senate has positioned the national assembly the way it should work, that is our primary aim, the rest is secondary”

He also hinted that his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal was premeditated to embarrass him as it was instituted two months after his emergence as Senate President.

“From what we’re seeing in the court, not my own words, even the word of the witness some of the comments there support what I said. Those of you who were in court, you remember the day the chief witness said that the first time they wrote the committee on federal government implementation of property sale was in August 2015, that’s like two months after I emerged, and to me that was further confirmation of what I said. Which means that prior to then, there was no investigation.

“As that may be, I see it as a huge distraction because there is more we could be doing in the hours we were losing when we go to court. We have to do that, I want to clear my name as soon as possible, but it is an unfortunate distraction, I think it was ill conceived by those I talked about at that time and of course, as I said it is a huge distraction.

“But it has no deterred us, I believe that we have been able to address and push along our own agenda, after the case is over, I believe that as an institution too we must look into how to strengthen our judiciary and how to ensure that political battles that are lost in the political arena do not find themselves into the judicial arena, it is not good for the system, I think even as you hear people use the word ‘corruption trial’ when actually look at the issue the best you’ll call it is administration misdemeanour… there is nowhere at any time you’re talking about government funds missing somewhere… and when we start to paint the fight against corruption and people begin not be sure whether it is corruption or politics, we do more harm to the fight against corruption.”