Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), says with the emergence of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the President of the 10th Senate and Hon. Abbas Tajudeen as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nigerians should expect another rubber stamp and docile Assembly just like the 9th Assembly.
In a statement issued Tuesday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, expressed doubts that Nigerians may witness a robust independent minded and pro-people National legislature.
The Rights group said it was unfortunate that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has created the impression that the Senators and members of the House of Representatives are persons of very low integrity whose consciences could be bought by either money or political patronage to do the bidding of the President which is antithetical to the fundamentals of constitutional democracy.
It said: “The current session of the National Assembly with these handpicked candidates of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu imposed on the Senators and House of Representatives members, will be just as docile, and a rubber stamp legislature just like the 9th Session of the National Assembly headed by Ahmed Lawan.”
The group accused the executive arm of the government of arm twisting the legislators to accept the docile leadership.
It expressed shock by the amount of interest and the high levels of threats and intimidation that the few Senators who dissented from the mainstream position of the President on the leadership composition in the National Assembly were subjected to.
It noted: “The processes that threw up the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives smacks of executive interferences and as far as rational minded people are concerned, the National Assembly is already hijacked by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and unless miracle happens, the interests of the people of Nigeria who are the real owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria, won’t be protected.”
