The Senior Special Assistant to
President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, has
described the national and state legislatures from 1999 to date in Akwa Ibom
State as rubber stamps for acceding to all the demands of the executive without
asking questions that would be beneficial to the people.
Enang, who has been a lawmaker at
both state and national levels, said he is disappointed with the quality of
representation from the legislators in the state.
Enang stated this in Uyo, the
Akwa Ibom State capital, while delivering a lecture entitled, “Assessing the
performance of Akwa Ibom State Legislators at the State and national levels,”
during the 2021 Press week organised by the Correspondents’ Chapel of NUJ with
the theme “Post COVID-19 Economy and the Challenges to Ethical Journalism Ahead
of 2023 Elections”
Enang, while recalling the
activities of the lawmakers over two decades said, “There is what is called
‘Demon of Office’ which afflicts people in executive offices and that is why
the Legislators are there to make laws which will call the executive to order
when they err.
“In the whole of Akwa Ibom state,
it is only the 1993 Assembly in Akwa Ibom State that was able to override an
executive bill during the brief interlude of Obong Akpan Isemin’ s
administration as Governor of the state.
“He (Isemin) brought a bill for a
supplementary budget of N200m and could not give a breakdown of how the main
budget was spent. We rejected it. Which House of Assembly will do that today?
“There was a time a nominee in
this State was sent to the house of Assembly for screening we had to turn down
the person because he was too old, we told him to go bring his son because we
needed younger persons to occupy the positions, how many houses of assembly can
do that? rather any person from the governor now, the house approves.
“We stopped the governor from
selling a soundproof giant size generator that belonged to the state-owned
Brewery company – Champion Breweries by mobilizing all members of the Assembly
and intercepted the generator along Calabar Itu road and the plot failed.
“Our kind of Assembly was the
type that as a governor you cannot stampede us, we ask questions of what will
be of benefit to our people and I encourage other Assemblies to do the same.”
He added that the National
Assembly, through the leadership of late Chuba Okadigbo, passed the bill to
establish Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) into law when President
Olusegun Obasanjo refused to sign it into law.
He said, “As the Chairman of
Rules and Ethics in the National Assembly, I canvassed for members to sign the
NDDC bill into law when former President Olusegun Obasanjo refused to accent to
the bill.”
Enang, therefore, charged
lawmakers to be courageous in their responsibilities as the present crop of
lawmakers is not representing the people but their personal interest.
However, the House Committee
Chairman on Information, Hon Aniefiok Akpan when contacted said the Assembly
cannot join issues with the presidential aide, adding that the legislators have
constitutional duties to follow and they have discharged those duties well.
He wondered why Enang would think
and describe the lawmakers as ‘rubber stamp,’ simply because they didn’t
impeach the governor.
According to the lawmaker “I
refuse to join issues with Ita Enang because it does not mean that when you are
not impeaching the governor, you are rubber stamping. We have our
constitutional duties that the laws provide for us to follow. We know our
bounds, we know what to do and when to do it.
“It does not mean when you don’t
impeach a governor you are rubber stamping. We owe our people, Akwa Ibom people
a responsibility, we are not looking at Ita Enang as a person but Akwa Ibom
people who voted us in office”.
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