Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) on Friday berated Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila over bad leadership of the National Assembly. The CNPP in a statement on Friday by the Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, decried that “the current leadership of the National Assembly, particularly, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are the worst performing principal officers of the National Assembly in the history of Nigeria.” The group scolded the National Assembly leadership for developing cold feet in embarking on a constitutional amendment that would restructure Nigeria’s federal system for better governance. CNPP was of the view that the Nigeria National Assembly members have derelict their responsibilities of making laws for good governance.
CNPP expressed support for the position of a renowned legal practitioner, Mike Ozekhome SAN, who disagreed with one of the resolutions of the 17 southern governors’, making a case for a constitutional conference. Ozekhome had declared that the 469 members of the National Assembly in both the Senate and House of Representatives constituted a waste of resources. CNPP, therefore, declared that “the national lawmakers have remained the worst disappointment to the Nigerian electorates.”
CNPP Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, in the statement declared: “the Southern Governors’ ban on open grazing is the right way in the right direction but there has to be in place a domesticated legal framework for enforcement rather than a mere mouthed ban, which amounts to political statement.
“However, their call for a national confab is faulty as the recommendations from past national dialogues are accumulating dust and should be put to use by the National Assembly as there are no new issues in the country that have not been discussed at earlier national confabs.
“But, unfortunately, the current leadership of the National Assembly has remained the worst rubber stamp principal officers ever.
“We agree with Mike Ozekhome (SAN) who spoke in Anambra State on Thursday, as a keynote speaker at the 25th Law Week of the Awka branch of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), where he described the Southern governors’ suggestion for another confab as unnecessary.
“Like the human rights lawyer said, what is wrong with previous confab resolutions and recommendations?
“Recommendation from Obasanjo’s national dialogue, the PRONACO people’s confab by late Chief Anthony Enahoro, and Jonathan’s 2014 confab all have recommendations, which addressed our current challenges, among others.
“If Nigeria had implemented the recommendations of the 2014 confab, there would have been a state police today and we would have had a part-time legislature, among others, that would have nipped in the bud current restiveness and agitations across the country, including the ongoing deafening insecurity.
“Since 2015, the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration has carried on as if all is well with the country and have continued to avoid burning issues of national interests, sacrificing the future of our youths on the altar of party loyalty.
“Why have Nigerian political elites continued to postpone the doomsday?
“The gloomy future we failed to work against is now our current reality and insecurity has reached the highest level under the current APC led federal government.
“The earlier we wake up and confront our fears, the better to for us all.”