NAN-H-77
Unity
By Lizzy Okoji/Taiye Edeni
Abuja, July 17, 2017 (NAN) The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), an NGO, has called for unity of purpose between the legislature and the executive in order to ensure national development.
CISLAC’s Executive Director, Mr Auwal Rafsanjani, made the call in Abuja on Monday at a retreat with the theme: `Understanding Nigeria’s lower middle income status and unlocking potentials for local resource mobilisation for social sector financing’, organised for members of the National Assembly.
Cue in audio (Rafsanjani)
“It is important for the National Assembly and the Executive to realise that whatever they are doing it should be in the interest of Nigeria and for Nigerians.
“Therefore, the unnecessary ego and quarrel has nothing to do with deepening democracy and ensuring improvement of the quality of Nigerians lives it is not really important and paramount.
“It is important they work together closely to ensure good
governance, transparency and accountability.
“Particularly in dealing with financing key social sectors, health, education and agriculture which is usually deficit in all depository allocation from 1999 to date.
“It is important that they work together and collaborate so that we can harness efforts and resources and collaboratively move Nigeria forward.’’
Cue out audio
He urged both parties to put aside ego, unnecessary rivalry and power tussle especially on issues of national development and sustainable democracy.
Rafsanjani said that the essence of the meeting was to bring together members of the National Assembly especially the relevant committees to brainstorm and develop ideas on how to raise local resources to fund key sectors.
He said that the retreat was timely especially at a time many donor agencies were threatening to withdraw assistance from Nigeria.
The CISLAC executive director said that Nigeria had huge potentialities to mobilise local funding for key sectors.
He said that work together would enable both the executive and legislature to harness the abundant potentialities in the country.
Similarly, Mr Jibrin Ibrahim, a political scientist, underscored the need for both arms of government to respect one another’s constitutional powers if they were to work closely.
According to him, it is important for each arm to be autonomous and not overstep their bounds.
He stated that in taking decisions, the two arms of government need to consider the interests of the vast majority of Nigerians.
“Our democracy has matured and one of the signs of that maturity is that the National Assembly has gradually been able to gain its autonomy from the executive.
“The conflict remains with a lot of confusion over what the powers of the executive and the legislature are both in terms of appropriation and at the level of confirmation of appointments.
“That conflict has become so deep that there is the need for arbitration by the Supreme Court who should look at the matter and take a decision on the limits of the powers of each arm.
“The national assembly must do its work, but at the same time, it should not encroach on the powers of the executive.
“Above all, the both parties must work together, which entails respecting each other’s powers and limiting themselves to the authority and competence defined for them by the constitution,’’ Ibrahim said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the one-day retreat was organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation in collaboration with CISLAC to develop strategies towards domestic resource mobilisation.
According to the organisers, the resources will be channelled towards financing social sectors in the wake of moves by international donors to withdraw financial aid from key social sectors such as health and education, among others.
No fewer than 7.5 million children could lose access to life-saving vaccines when the Global Alliance Vaccines Initiative runs out by 2020, 2.5 million children would be at risk of malnutrition if UNICEF withdraws support. (NAN)
LIZ/TY/LAB/YEE
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Edited by Lydia Beshel/Emmanuel Yashim