Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has stated that contrary to beliefs in some quarters, the legislature and the executive are not rivals but partners in progress.
Dogara stated this on Monday in Abuja, when he received the new Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Mr. Boss Mustapha, in his office.
He described the appointment of Mr. Mustapha as “a round peg in a round hole, or a square peg in a square hole”, and stated that the president “hit the nail on the head.”
Dogara who lauded Mustapha’s visit to the National Assembly, said the visit by the new SGF is unprecedented in the history of the parliament.
He noted, “It’s never been done. In those days it was invitations extended to them, then a discussion whether they’ll appear at all would ensue. In some cases, some members of the executive would go to court on the basis of legislative summons.
“That is because powers of every sort usually led to abuses. So the rule that people always use to guard was that: ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. And that is why we have the three departments of government, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, all of us doing the work of democracy. So it was an idea of the founding fathers of democracy that it would take some kind of cooperation and consensus among the different arms of government for us to make progress as a people.”
He assured of the desire of the legislature to work with the executive in order to deliver the goods for the people.
He said, “As a matter of fact for us, there really is no distinction in government; it’s just ignorant people who tend to make these distinctions. If the executive fails, there’s no way the legislature would be exonerated, we are all guilty.”