The Senate President mentioned this while declaring the induction of the first batch of the new representatives on Tuesday in Abuja.
Nigerian Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has admitted that many Nigerians called his leadership in the National Assembly as a “rubber stamp” legislature.
The Senate President mentioned this while declaring the induction of the first batch of the new representatives on Tuesday in Abuja.
He stated that though labelled as rubber stamp, the Ninth Senate was aware of the negative impact of ongoing disagreement with the executive and its impact on legislative activities.
“However, we were equally aware that a good working relationship is desirable and indeed imperative to achieve effective and efficient service delivery to the people,” the senator noted.
Lawan added, “Hence, under my leadership, the Ninth National Assembly adopted a friendly but professional approach to executive-legislative relations. This was focused on a harmonious working relationship based on mutual respect, consultation, cooperation, collaboration and partnership.”
Ahmed further mentioned that “this approach to engaging with the executive has led to a misperception and misunderstanding, which has led many to tag the Ninth National Assembly as a ‘rubber stamp’ assembly.”
Lawan insisted that “our intention in preferring an engagement with the executive based on harmony and collaboration has been to better serve Nigeria by providing a safe atmosphere for national development.”
According to him, the Ninth Senate accomplished admirably in terms of the number and quality of measures submitted, passed, and signed.
Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila has urged the 10th National Assembly's lawmakers-elect to engage in impeachable discussion.
Gbajabiamila congratulated the members on their election success and asked them to justify their positions through the quality of their efforts in their posts.
“For those of us in the legislature, this means that the quality of our law-making and advocacy, the excellence of our constituency services, the thoroughness of our oversight activities and the substance of our discourse in the chamber must be unimpeachable,” stated the speaker.