Jonathan may back Oteh against N’Assembly

The cold war between the executive and legislative arms of government may deepen, as there are indications that President Goodluck Jonathan may back the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arunma Oteh, against the National Assembly. The House had called for the sack of Oteh and the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, Bola Onagoruwa.

The Senate, last week, adopted the report of its ad hoc committee on privatisation and commercialisation, which called for Onagoruwa’s removal for alleged gross incompetence and illegal and fraudulent sale of the five per cent of Federal Government’s residual shares in Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited.

The House of Representatives had made a similar call on the President to sack Onagoruwa.

The  Lower Chamber of the National Assembly had accepted all the recommendations of the Ibrahim El Sudi-led ad hoc committee that investigated the near-collapse of the capital market, and called for the sack of Otteh, adding that she was unfit to hold the office.

Though a recent media report said the President might be planning a soft-landing for the two embattled officials by asking them to resign instead, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the powers to hire and fire officials were vested solely in the President. He accused the legislature of overstepping its boundary by dabbling in executive matters.

Abati, in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday, said it was against the tenets of democracy for executive power to be usurped by the legislative arm of government.

He said there would continue to be friction in the system if one arm of government continued to do the job of another arm.

He said, “The important thing to note is that respect for the principle of separation of powers is the heart of democracy.

“Legislators cannot be doing the work of the Executive. The power to hire and fire and delegate powers rests in the President.

“In a situation where the Legislature calls for the sack every day under the guise of oversight function, there will be confusion.

“We are not practising a parliamentary system of government in Nigeria. The Legislature can check the excesses of the Executive, but our legislators seem to be confusing a presidential system with parliamentary system.

“We must learn to respect the responsibilities and limits of powers given to institutions because there will be friction when one arm of government attempts to do the work assigned to another arm of government.

“Often times, the legislature oversteps its boundary by dabbling in Executive matters.”

If Jonathan refused to accede to the request of the lawmakers, this would not be the first time he would be doing so.

The President had earlier shunned a resolution of the House of Representatives asking him to come and brief the lawmakers on the efforts of his government to tackle insecurity in the country.

In his vote of thanks during the presentation of the 2013 Budget to the joint session of the National Assembly recently, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwwal, had frowned on Jonathan’s penchant for disregarding House resolutions, saying the country could only benefit if the two arms of government worked together to deliver their mandates.

“I am compelled however to state that the National Assembly is becoming increasingly concerned about the disregard for its resolutions and public comments by certain functionaries of the Executive on same. I cite the Senate Resolution on the Bureau of Public Enterprises, the House Resolution on the state of insecurity of the nation, requesting Mr. President to visit and brief the House, the House of Representatives Resolution on the Securities and Exchange Commission, the concurrent Resolution of the two Chambers on Bakassi among others. This does not promote cordial relationship between the Executive and Legislature and consequently stability in the polity,” Tambuwwal had said.

Currently, the two arms of government are also at loggerheads over the oil price benchmark for the 2013 Budget.

While government had pegged the oil price for the 2013 budget at $75 per barrel, members of the National Assembly wanted the government to jeck it up to $80 per barrel.