Senate-Presidency Row: I can't threaten NASS - Osinbajo

Senate-Presidency Row: I can't threaten NASS - Osinbajo Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has urged the Executive and the Legislative arms of govern­ment not to waste their tenure on conflicts and division. He refuted media reports that he had threatened the leadership of the National Assembly over the Presidency’s face-off with the legislature. Osinbajo spoke on Tuesday when he declared open the 16th Commonwealth Speaker and Presiding Officers Con­ference (CSPOC) Africa Re­gion in Abuja. Referring to a newspaper headline, which alleged that the “Acting President threat­ens National Assembly lead­ership!” Osinbajo jokingly said that anyone who sees the combined size of the Presi­dent of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker, Hon Yakubu Dogara, compared to him would know that it would be a suicide mission to threat­en either of the two gentlemen let alone both of them. He said: “It is, therefore, my submission that the burden that the privilege of leadership places upon us is to ensure that our tenured positions in the executive and legislature must not be wasted on con­flicts and division. The prob­lems are too grave, the lives and livelihoods of millions depend on our cooperation, we cannot afford to fail.” Challenging the political elite to learn a measure of hu­manity, Osinbajo said that the burden of the elite is “to put ourselves in the position of the most deprived in our so­cieties to stand in their shoes and to sit where they sit, to feel their pains and understand that their frequently dashed hope is that the political elite know that the heavy burdens they bear are ours to lighten.” He, however, urged them to note that “the leadership positions we occupy is a short lease that Providence and the electorate have given us to shape the present and deter­mine the future of millions and the generations that will be born to them, it would be foolish indeed to think that it is an occasion for self-aggran­disement or the pursuit of selfish interests. “The responsibility that privilege and power place upon us is to do our utmost to change the current bleak nar­ratives and projections for our nation and the world.” Earlier, the Speaker of the House, Hon Dogara, who also doubles as the Chairman, Africa Region of Common­wealth Speakers of Parliament and Presiding Officers, urged legislatures across the African continent to break their peo­ple free from dictatorship by building strong institutions that will drive socio-econom­ic development and lift the people out of poverty. Dogara, who said that this can only be achieved by first establishing networks and building coalition among the African legislatures, lamented that the executive branch of government hardly and sel­dom reciprocate the gesture of cooperation extended by the National Assembly in its effort to ensure smooth running of government for the delivery of dividends of democracy to the Nigerian people. “The Legislature as the first institution of democracy must sacrifice more in this endeavour even if the gesture is not often returned by the Executive,” he said.

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