What Buhari Told NASS Leadership During Private Dinner At Aso Rock

President Muhammadu Buhari, during a dinner on Thursday with the leadership of the 9th National Assembly, urged for a cordial relationship between the legislative and the executive arms of government.

Buhari told the NASS leadership that a friendly relationship between both arms of government will foster better governance for the benefit of Nigerians.

According to the President, “it pays to maintain neighbourliness’’ between the executive and legislature.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan assured Buhari in his remark that the 9th NASS will work with his administration to bring and end to the country’s various challenges.

Buhari’s media adviser, Femi Adesina, revealed in a statement on Friday that the President hosted the NASS leadership at the new Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The President further said during the dinner: “cultivating neighbourliness on individual and national level will deepen the values of democracy and speed up development process by saving the cost of delays and repairs.”

Buhari expressed fulfillment with the voting the pattern of the 9th NASS principal officers, saying it, “showed a lot of maturity and patriotism, and also signalled to all Nigerians that love for the nation supersedes party affiliations.

“I was very pleased that people expressed their desires at the National Assembly across party lines. Neighbourliness is very important.

“It makes sense to cultivate neighbourliness on individual and national level. If you cultivate good relationship with your neighbour, you will save a lot emotionally and materially.”

He urged the legislature not to compare Nigeria’s democracy with more developed countries “as every country had its peculiarities and the historical growth patterns had been different, with the developed countries practising liberal democracy for longer years.

“Along the line of development, we are a developing country. We have different experiences.’’

Adesina, in the statement, quoted Lawan noted as saying the 9th NASS was different in “attitude, composition, and patriotism’’ and will ensure good “collaboration, partnership and synergy’’ on national issues.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said elections of principal officers in the National Assembly were transparent, assuring that the National Assembly will work with the president, to improve the lives of constituents.