The Presidency has said it will not engage in any form of political and psychological warfare with the National Assembly over the decision of the upper legislative chamber to suspend consideration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominees for Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs)
The Senate suspended consideration of the REC nominees in protest against Ibrahim Magu’s continued stay in office as the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Speaking to the media in response to the Senate’s decision, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, said President Buhari will respect the decision of the lawmakers and pursue dialogue with them.
He noted that the Senate is an arm of government that must be respected in any decision it takes in the course of exercising its powers as an independent institution.
Enang said: “We will not question the power of the senators to take decision on how they want to conduct nomination hearings.
“We will not go fighting with them”.
“We will listen to their grievances and reason along with them”
He declined to say if Buhari will now ask Magu to step aside, saying he will “not go into specifics.”
It could be recalled that penultimate Wednesday, the senators urged the president to relieve the EFCC chief of his job and name a temporary replacement pending fresh nomination of a substantive chairman.
The decision of the Senate to decline screening the REC nominees marked the second time in recent months that the Senate would move to force the hands of the executive on national issues.
In November 2016, the senators threatened to boycott plenary to protest a prolonged delay in conducting re-run elections in Rivers State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission swiftly announced dates for the elections, which held the following month.