National Assembly Talks Tough, Warns Buhari

Worried by the worsening relationship with the Presidency, the National Assembly has warned that it will not hesitate to invoke its constitutional powers against President Muhammadu Buhari if he fails to address a number of resolutions passed at the joint session.

Following the warning, a member of the House of Reps representing Kazaure/Roni/Gwiwa/Ankashi of Jigawa State, Muhammed Gudaji Kazaure, says there was a plot to impeach President Buhari.

The National Assembly on Tuesday at the Joint Session passed 12 resolutions which they say the president must implement.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, who read the resolutions of the session held behind closed doors, said: “The joint session of the National Assembly in a closed session resolved that the security agencies must be given a marching order to curtail the killings of Nigerians across the country and protect the lives and properties of Nigerians. This is the primary responsibility of any responsible government.

“Two, persecution of political opponents must stop.

“Three, there is the strict adherence to the rule of law and protection of all citizens.

“Four, the president must be held accountable of the actions of his appointees and must be ready to sanction any act which will ridicule the country and our country’s democracy.

“Five, the government should show sincerity to the fight against corruption by not being selective and also prosecute current appointees pending against them.

“Six, the sanctity of the National Assembly protected and preserved and prosecute those who invaded the senate to seize the mace. Elections must be competitive and inclusive [away] from the rule of fear and intimidation, particularly as we approach the forthcoming 2019 elections.”

According to Saraki, “the National Assembly will meet a few international communities through the IPU ECOWAS parliament, CPA, EU and United Nations to secure our democracy. The National Assembly will also work close to the civil society organizations to further deepen and protect our democracy.

“Resolution nine, the president must take immediate steps to curtail the growing rate of unemployment especially now that we have the advantage of rising oil price. Ten, both chambers of the national assembly pass a vote of confidence on the senate president and the speaker and the entire leadership of the national assembly.

“Eleven, we also hereby reaffirm our earlier resolution of the vote of no confidence on the Inspector-general of police who does nothing but preside over killings of Nigerians and outright disregard for constitutional authority of both the executive and the legislature. Finally, the national assembly will not hesitate to invoke its constitutional power if nothing is done address the bulk of resolutions passed today.”

the resolution to use legislative instruments should the president fail to take action on the resolutions reached by lawmakers is a veiled impeachment threat.

Speaking on the session, Kazaure said “I tried to raise an amendment, but they didn’t allow me to do so. This is because we had a resolution that, all what we did…that if the Federal Government doesn’t meet our demands, that we will take any legislative action against the executive.

“I am not in support of this and many of us (lawmakers) are not in support of this. Many of us are not in support of threatening the president because we know he is a man of integrity.

“The issue of people collecting signatures to serve a notice of impeachment to the president….we know this is happening in the House.

“But we know nobody can afford to show us the list of people who want to impeach the president.

“I tell you nobody can present this list because they cannot get two-third majority.

“Those of us who support the president in the Senate and the House have the numbers. We are strong enough to stop anything called impeachment.”