A member of the House of Representatives, Mr Saidu Abdullahi, representing Bida/Katcha/Gbako Federal Constituency in Niger State, has faulted Nigerians who accuse the National Assembly of being a rubber-stamp legislature to the executive arm of the Federal Government.

Abdullahi, in an interview with our correspondent, said the federal legislature had decided to have a cordial relationship with the executive in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.

According to him, the country stands a better chance of witnessing better governance when the two arms of government do not clash.

He said, “For us to put things in a better perspective, we need to appreciate the responsibility of each of the three arms of government. Of course, there has to be a separation of powers among the arms but at the same time, we must appreciate the interdependence of each of the three arms. Without that level of interdependence, we are not likely going to get the best out of democracy.

“So truly, we came on board to support the executive and work with them for us to be able to meet the aspirations of Nigerians. I think if you look at it from that perspective, we have to appreciate the fact that we are not here to fight ourselves; we are all here to work for a common goal which is to make this country better. It is for our own collective good.

“Really, I don’t want to believe that the 9th National Assembly is a rubber stamp as being alleged by the public. What we have tried to do is to accommodate ourselves for us to be able to fast-track our development process.

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“There are times that, of course, we have to come hard on the executive to check some of their activities. It is a constitutional responsibility for us and I don’t think we have failed in doing that. But possibly, what the public has seen is more of the collaboration between the two arms but they try to look away when we come hard on the executive.”

When asked to cite examples of when the 9th Assembly was hard on the executive, Abdullahi said, “Look at the case of the service chiefs; over and over, we were hard on the executive to change the service chiefs. It is one of such instances when we – the two chambers (Senate and House) – really came hard on the executive, the President, in particular, to change the service chiefs.”