I Will Not Concede Powers To Executive – Bukola Saraki

The Senate on Thursday vowed that it would not concede its powers to the Executive.

This followed a Point-of-Order raised by the Deputy Leader of the Senate, Sen. Bala Na’Allah at plenary.

Quoting Order 43 of Senate Standing Rule, Na’Allah said that there were media reports credited to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to the effect that the National Assembly did not possess any power to alter the budget.

He expressed concern that such statement was attributed to the acting president, saying that he was knowledge enough in law.

”We have operated the Constitution from 1999 to date and I have had the privilege to work with the Acting President while I was practicing in Lagos as a lawyer.

”We did a lot of things together. So, he is somebody that I know so much.

“I will rather believe that what was alleged to have been said could not have been said by him and even if he spoke on the matter, he was misquoted.

”For the avoidance of doubt, this same Constitution we operated from 1999 to date has section 80, and the title of section 80 is `Power and Control over Public Funds’,’’ he said.

He read out the provisions of sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Constitution to support the argument, adding the Constitution recognised that Nigeria operated a federal structure.

Na’Allah said that the Constitution also recognised that Nigeria was multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi-religious and that that was the reason issues of domination were raised in the constitution-making process.

He explained that it was the fear of domination that made framers of the Constitution to provide for representation on the basis of population and land mass and on the basis of equality of states.

”This is what gave birth to a bi-cameral legislature – the Senate and the House of Representatives. The House provides representation based on population and land mass while the Senate is based on equality of states.