Leon Usigbe brings back issues arising from the Presidency-organised symposium to mark this year's Democracy Day, which virtually turned out to be a platform for brickbats between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.THE National Symposium organised by President Goodluck Jonathan in the Presidential Villa to mark the 2012 Democracy Day once again brought to the fore the continuing uneasy relationship between his Presidency and members of the House of Representatives, most of whom are members of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). There has been no love lost between them since the PDP members in the House, urged on by opposition elements, decided to throw party supremacy to the dogs and chose Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as speaker against the party's consensus candidate, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, whereas the Senate chose to toe the party line.The Presidency was hurt, just as the PDP itself by the obstinate disregard for party's ideals by the lawmakers on the pretext of upholding the independence of the legislature. The outcome of the leadership selection process may have given some credibility to the lower chamber of the National Assembly in the eye of certain members of the public but it presented both the Presidency and the PDP under whose platform the members were elected as weak and lacking any measure of control over its members. Since the emergence of Tambuwal as Speaker, in spite of the token effort to smoothen the relationship between both arms of government, a wide gulf remains till this day. This was accentuated by the Speaker of the House in his remarks when he was invited to present an address during the symposium. Speaking on the topic, 'Our Democracy: Progress and Challenges,' Honourable Tambuwal had noted that he was disturbed that the executive had shied away from its responsibility to sign into law, bills passed by the legislature. While enumerating the challenges facing the legislature, he posited that inasmuch as it was the constitutionaldutyof the legislature to pass laws, it was equally the constitutional responsibility of Mr President to assent to same.However, he alleged that the president had neglected his responsibility by not assenting to bills passed by the National Assembly. Tambuwal said this situation had made the legislative process cumbersome because some of these bills had to be re-introducedde novo.'This is not a healthy situation for the executive-legislature relationship, neither does it portray our democracy in good light amongst the comity of nations,' he charged.In a largely combative text deliberately prepared to rub home his anger with the president right inside the Presidential Villa, Tambuwal suggested that the country was beset with problems because President Jonathan had not played by the rules, especially in the matters of separation of powers and good governance, as he noted that 'once the process is sabotaged by circumventing any of these, democracy is undermined and all sorts of problems begin to manifest.' In much the same way, Tambuwal was of the view that if there was no action on the recommendations of the various investigative committees set up by the House, Nigerians should not look beyond the president when they apportion blames. For him, in furtherance of its oversight functions, the National Assembly carried out investigations into critical areas of the Nigerian economy with startling revelations.Tambuwal sought to assure that the investigations were not meant to witchhunt anybody but to ensure that the principle and practice of public accountability was moved from the realm of sheer rhetoric to that of reality. 'It is, however, important to state for the benefit of the public that under the doctrine of separation of powers, once the legislature has passed resolutions on the recommendations of such investigative reports turned in by its committees, implementation is the statutory duty of the executive.'The Speaker issued what looked like a direct threat to the president and what appears to be a devaluation of the office of the president and the vice president, especially over the issue of budgeting, over which he said the legislature, which he noted is more representative of the people than the president, has the final say. His words: 'I wish to allude to the issue of budgeting. The executive arm of government is made up of only two elected functionaries, to wit the president and the vice (sic), whereas the National Assembly is a body of 469 elected functionaries.The adage two heads are better than one is reinforced by that which says he who wears the shoe knows better where it pinches and both favour the position of the elected representatives. In the people's wisdom enunciated in the 1999 Constitution (as Amended), the legislature has the final say on the budget document by way of a veto where the right of final say is resisted. The National Assembly has acted responsibly and cautiously in the exercise of this power in the belief that the executive will come to terms with this reality before long.'In spite of the seeming antagonism towards the president, the Speaker conceded that much progress had been made under the present dispensation in the executive-legislature relations when compared to the President Olusegun Obasanjo era. 'In the 1999-2007 Obasanjo dispensation, there was reckless executive interference in the affairs of the National Assembly on the one part and the federal and state government relations on the other.I am proud to say that things have since changed for the better. Between 2007 ' 2011 Yar'Adua/Jonathan years and to date, the Federal Executive has exercised commendable maturity in ensuring that it does not interfere in the affairs of the National Assembly.'President Jonathan was not amused by the temerity of Tambuwal to attack him wholesale in the Presidential Villa in the full glare of the guests, including former President Shehu Shagari and former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, whom he had personally invited for an occasion that was supposed to celebrate the good points of the past year. He told the Speaker when it was his time to speak that as people elected under the same political party, they must work in line with the manifesto of the PDP, which they used to campaign for election. In a direct response to the Speaker's scathing allegations, President Jonathan, who harped on the issue of the workability of separation of powers, noted that while it was possible to completely separate the judiciary, both the executive and the legislature must, however, work together in the interest of the people.According to him, 'the Speaker made reference to bills for example. We all belong to political parties but the judiciary does not belong to parties. Every political party has a manifesto and those who contest elections to hold any office whether in the executive arm of government as president, vice president, governor or those who contest election to be in the legislative arm of government, either as a legislator or councillor, are supposed to campaign based on the party manifesto and that is why individual governors don't have their separate manifestoes. Every member of the PDP, for example, is supposed to key into the PDP manifesto. So, when we are elected into office, both arms of government are supposed to work together to make sure that the party manifesto guides our actions. If that is true, how do we separate them''President Jonathan stressed that if the PDP had a policy on agriculture for instance, it was the executive that would come up with the programmes, but the legislators, who are mostly members of PDP, were supposed to supportthat programme because both the president and the lawmakers contested election on the platform of the PDP. It worried the president, therefore, that rather than working together for the realisation of the government objectives for the good of the country, the lawmakers were insistent on absolute separation of powers.President Jonathan, who revealed that he was angry to find that the officials of the different arms of government had been arranged to sit separately for the symposium, regretted the playing up of divisions among the arms of government. He argued that creating divisions could not lead to good governance, as he asserted that politicians who belong to the same political party ought to espouse similar ideals because'if you fail, they say the PDP has failed.' The president similarly regretted that, contrary to what obtained in other developed democracies where it is strange for a lawmaker to publicly vote against a president elected on his party's ticket, it is news in Nigeria when a lawmaker supports the president, with whom he shares a political platform.President Jonathan argued that while it is possible to separate the judiciary from government to a reasonable level, the same could not be said of the executive and the parliament.His words: 'Let me talk about separation of powers, which in some cases sounds even absurd.How separate are these powers' Yes, you can separate the judiciary to some reasonable level but can you really separate the parliament from the executive and have a stable government'That is one of the greatest challenges we have and especially in Nigeria. I believe if the parliamentarians and those in the executive maintain that theoretical separation of powers as if there is a wall separating the executive from the legislature, then this country would continue to have problems.'On the budget over which the Speaker said the lawmakers had the final say, President Jonathan appeared to take an exception to Tambuwal's remark and suggested that there was no way government could succeed if it allowed budgets in the form the National Assembly presents it after much padding.The president asserted that for any democracy to be meaningful, it must work on budgets that would enable it to plan and manage the economy but 'if you send your budget to the National Assembly and they tear it to pieces and package what they like to you, it becomes difficult to plan and manage the economy.'He drew attention to the fact that budgeting had been a yearly challenge for government because of its experience with the lawmakers up to the point that the executive had to approach the Supreme Court at one time to decide whether it was the legislature that should prepare the nation's budget and hand it over to the executive for implementation, or whether it was the responsibility of the executive, which, apart from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has the Ministries of National Planning and Finance. 'Budgets are not created from the moon; they are based on projections, commitments and funding and what you seesometimes could be disturbing. This has been a major conflict between NASS and the executive. The Speaker mentioned it. That is why I am raising it,' the president maintained.However, the president does not believe that all these should create room for friction between the two arms of government,which he said must work together for democracy to be meaningful for Nigerians, for them to get the dividends of democracy and for the country to have good governance.'I plead with our legislators now and the next set of people that would come. Today, Mr Jonathan is the president but we are talking about what should be the ideal. It is for us to continue to work together and work together as a team. If we begin to see this clear division, we are exposing the NASS for people who are anti-government to use.It is not good to always celebrate the separation. When we begin to celebrate the separation, those outside government would use the NASS against the executive.'On the campaign for the 2015 elections, the president warned that elected officials should be allowed to do their job since they were just one year into their tenure of four years.While noting that the first year of an administration should be for planning, he was disturbed that there were already talks about 2015. 'Let us keep away from whether someone is going to contest or not. Let us focus on governance. It is not yet time for anybody to declare or not to declare interest.'Another important issue thrown up by the president was that of his apparent sluggish approach to issues, an impression he rubbished by arguing that he could not possibly behave like a military dictator in a democracy as expected in some quarters. He said mistakes made in the past by not strictly adhering to the rule of law had left the Federal Government with judgment debts of about N185billion which he did not want to compound by rushing into actions that could be voided by the courts, with more costs awarded against the government.'One other area is that we are still confused between the democratic government and military dictatorship. If we must practise democracy, no matter how bad you feel about any situation, you must follow the rule of law,' he said, adding 'Nigerians should encourage us to follow the rule of law to get to where we want to go. We will follow the rule of law in our transformation programme and as we progress.'The exchange between the president and the Speaker overshadowed important contributions by several other speakers, including the Secretary to Federal Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Ayim Pius Ayim, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega and even the former Director General of the State Security Services (SSS), Mr. Kayode Are. Chief Anyaoku, who pointed out that the symposium, was an opportunity to review the progress of the nation's democracy and the challenges faced by country over the last year, for instance gave two important messages in his remarks. First, he urged politicians and the media to spare the nation the distraction of engaging now in public debate on the 2015 elections, as he observed that this is only the first of a four-year political dispensation.'We must not allow preoccupation with 2015 elections to confirm the view that our politicians are only interested in self-aggrandisement, with the result that our national politics is bereft of active ideas on how to uplift the country and improve the quality of life of our citizens. The main focus of our public debates at this time should be how to tackle the massively destructive challenges currently facing the nation.'His second message related to the fact that Nigeria is a country whose size and diversity offers immeasurable benefits to all its peoples no matter their religion, ethnicity or place of birth even though its young democracy had been faced with a number of challenges. 'I believe that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has clearly set our national compass in the right and inspiring direction in the plans now being pursued by his government for improvement in the power supply, agricultural development, in the rehabilitation of the railways, in macro-economic management and in other areas.''But to be able to arrive at our desired destination of peace, stability and meaningful national development, we ' the government, the corporate sector, the civil organisations and the citizenry ' must in all our activities be driven by the commitment and desire to work for the good of the majority of our citizens. It is only in this way that we can be confident of continuing to celebrate in years to come, our democracy day in a united and indivisible country,' Chief Anyaoku admonished.
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