The National Assembly, especially the 10th Senate has been cautioned to wean itself of becoming “an enabler of executive recklessness”.

The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria’s 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar made the lamentation on Friday in a statement on his verified X handle.

He decried a situation where elected lawmakers, especially Senators appear to have lost the liberty of self-expression, even in the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly, because upper house looks like “a puppet in the hands of the President”.

The former vice president described as “uncharitable” a situation where elected Senators could not freely perform their statutory duties, without being “immediately reprimanded for so doing.”

He pointed out that, “This ugly tendency is being manifested by the steady posturing of our National Assembly, especially the Senate, of taking a reverse course in its core function and becoming a puppet in the hands of the President.

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“It is uncharitable that whenever members of the Senate stand on the floor of the red chamber to perform their statutory duty of calling the executive to order, they are immediately reprimanded for so doing.”

He lamented that the concept of democracy was to use the legislature to safeguard the interests of the people by controlling the executives, which sadly, has turned out otherwise in the current regime in Nigeria.

“Regrettably, however, the democracy in Nigeria in the current administration of President Bola Tinubu has become an anathema to that general principle of democracy as providing primary protection for the people against executive excesses”, he asserted.

Atiku decried the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi and the recent ‘ostracising and disrobing’ of Senator Ali Ndume for daring to speak the truth.

Recall that following what the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) considered undue criticism, Sen Ndume was counselled to look for another political party and replaced as Chief Whip of the Senate.

Atiku cautioned, “This emerging reality must stop. The health of our democracy is being compromised by this unholy alliance between the executive and the legislature and portends a dictatorship that will worsen the lot of the people.”

Atiku wrote “In the evolution of systems of government, a major concern for thinkers was a governmental framework that will reduce the highhandedness of the executive arm of government.

“It was thought, and rightly so too, that a participatory approach to governance, such that will make the government derive its legitimacy from the people will better serve the interest of the masses.

“And thus, to make sure that the executive does not go overboard in the application of its powers, the legislative arm of government was conceived as a means of protecting the people from the authoritarian tendencies of wielders of state powers.

“Regrettably, however, the democracy in Nigeria in the current administration of President Bola Tinubu has become an anathema to that general principle of democracy as providing primary protection for the people against executive excesses.

“This ugly tendency is being manifested by the steady posturing of our National Assembly, especially the Senate, of taking a reverse course in its core function and becoming a puppet in the hands of the President.

“It is uncharitable that whenever members of the Senate stand on the floor of the red chamber to perform their statutory duty of calling the executive to order, they are immediately reprimanded for so doing.

“When Senator Abdul Ningi called attention of the country to the incident of budget padding in the 2024 Appropriation bill, rather than calling for a thorough investigation into the observation, the reaction of the Senate was to hand him a suspension. Today, the people of Nigeria are victims of ambiguous budget framework upon which appropriations for the current fiscal year are hinged in the face of multiplicity of appropriations.

“Only yesterday, Senator Ali Ndume called for the President to wake up to his responsibilities and provide succour to address the biting hunger and poverty in the country. Ironically, the response of the @NGRSenate to his patriotic warning is to relieve him of his principal office as the Chief Whip of the Senate.

“Also, despite persistent solicitations that government put its priorities on canceling the excruciating hardship in the land and suspend the idea of spending scarce resources on the purchase of new aircraft for the presidential fleet, the Senate took a stand against the people and ignored the voices of altruism by decorating the President with controversial purchases of an aircraft and a yacht amidst the worst material conditions of the average citizen in the history of our country.

“We are, therefore, beginning to see a pattern in which the National Assembly has become an enabler of executive recklessness, and the concerns of the people stand in the nadir of priority list of the legislature.

“This emerging reality must stop. The health of our democracy is being compromised by this unholy alliance between the executive and the legislature and portends a dictatorship that will worsen the lot of the people.”