A high-powered delegation of the National Assembly of Nigeria was part of some 140 heads of parliaments across the world which converged on the United Nations (UN) Headquarters, New York under the auspices of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) for the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament. Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively led the delegation. In a sense, the national assembly may have made up for its embarrassing omission on President Muhammadu Buhari’s state visit to the United States early July. Only that its default parliamentary diplomacy to New York was prosecuted with very little or no policy direction from Aso Rock, manifesting yet another painful but avoidable hiatus in the relationship between President Buhari and leaders of the federal legislature.
The good news is that reports of Nigeria’s participation at the events showed that our leaders held their own and flew the country’s flag in a manner that begets national pride. It was delightful to read of Speaker Dogara’s call to the West to return monies stolen from Nigeria and stashed in their countries. It was brilliant to watch Senator Saraki address the conference with a call on conferees to demonstrate more concerted efforts on the scourge of terrorism and the resultant plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with specific reference to Boko Haram. And then we also read of meetings with other leaders of parliaments on the sidelines of the conference. These pieces of parliamentary diplomacy are a good fillip to the image of Nigeria. But there would have been greater value if these spurned from a clearly articulated foreign policy agenda that should have been provided by now by the 100 days old Buhari government. Those interventions ought to have been tailored to sync with and promote the thinking and foreign policy framework of the president for the overall national good. The usual practice is that before such NASS delegation departs there is some form of high-level interaction between both arms of government. It is taken for granted that the liaison office of the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the national assembly is fully activated to provide both consular and diplomatic arrangements. But there is often a level of political interface between leaders of the legislature and the presidency especially when the meetings involved are of very high levels. It was not uncommon to have former senate president David Mark hold briefings directly with former president Goodluck Jonathan before the former embarks on a foreign engagement of high national import. Senator Saraki’s New York trip could have been expanded as an opportunity for the senate president’s delegation to engage with the government of the United States in continuance of what President Buhari started during his official visit in July.
But such could only have been possible had there been routine interactions and rubbing of minds between the president and leaders of the national assembly. Yes it is a good thing that Aso Rock has finally appointed liaisons to both chambers of the national assembly to help smoothen relations between both arms of government but the role of middle-men cannot approximate to the personal interactions between President Buhari, Senator Saraki, Hon. Dogara and other key leaders of both branches. It remains disturbing that the last reportage on the strained relationship between the president and the national assembly is that the former has yet refused to receive in audience the senate president who statutorily is the chairman of the national assembly. According to the Punch newspaper in its July 12 edition assessed online, the president is still rankled by the emergence of Saraki as senate president as against the choice of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The report said: “An official in the presidency who confided in one of our correspondents said the President and the senate president had only met once since the latter’s emergence as the leader of the senate. All efforts by Saraki to have another meeting with the president were rebuffed by Buhari. The president of the senate had at different times reached out to people to help him persuade Buhari to grant him audience.” It is noteworthy that this Punch report was not denied neither has there been any reported meeting between the senate president and Buhari that the media is aware of. In a previous piece on this column, I had warned about the consequences of the lack of rapprochement between the president and leaders of the national assembly. The president need not lay landmines for himself because when the political chips get down it would matter less whether or not he is the messiah Nigeria needs at this time, apologies to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Because those who may be shouting hosanna today would be quick to join the ‘crucify him’ chorus tomorrow when the tides turn. That is the strange and awful nature of Nigerian politics and it is doubtful if the change mantra of the APC can change that.
But away from politics and back to development, it behoves on the president to outline and implement a healthy executive-legislature relationship in the interest of the country. This engenders mutual understanding and cuts out frictions; fast-tracks policy formulation and execution; and ultimately promotes a smooth implementation of the APC, the party that is lucky enough to have produced both the President and a majority in both chambers of the national assembly. It would sad that with such good fortune bestowed on it by the electoral goodwill of Nigeria, the APC would be unable to deliver on its mandate because of an unhealthy relationship between branches of government. As stated earlier, this is a task for which Senator Ita Enang and Hon. Kawo Ismaila have been employed by the president as liaisons to the senate and House of Representatives respectively but the ball does not shit directly from the court of Mr. Buhari. Especially when Senator Enang comes unto the job with a baggage of controversy hanging on his neck. Recall that the former senator of the last 7th assembly was chairman of the senate committee on rules and business who cannot be removed from the undying controversy over alleged doctoring of the senate’s standing rules which is a matter before the court. Senator Enang is very unlikely to command the respect of a section of the senate leadership because of the roles he allegedly played against the emergence of the current senate president and deputy senate president. With such liaison to the senate, President Buhari has ironically increased the burden of courting the national assembly on himself, a role he has been wont to escape from.
Now that Saraki and Dogara have gone on a parliamentary diplomatic offensive in New York without the benefit of a benevolent executive-legislature relationship, the country’s image as a responsible member of the international community is of course enhanced. But the gains could have gone beyond image laundering and diplomatic sable-rattling as Dogara did. Luckily, there would be many more opportunities for parliamentary diplomacy. But there would be fewer chances for concrete national gains if the president refuses to engage elected representatives of the national assembly in a mutually respectful and fruitful manner.
Epia is an ex-parliamentary adviser at the National Assembly. Follow him on Twitter @resourceme