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Udeze Ekene
Guest
A former spokesman to former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Laolu Akande, has said Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume, was wrong to demand the withdrawal of Tax Reform Bill from the National Assembly.
Laolu Akande said the National Assembly remains the national platform for argument and discussion of issues of national importance.
He noted that the request of Senator Ndume for the bill to be withdrawn for governors to make their inputs and accept the bill was unfounded.
Osinbajo’s former aide regretted that the National Assembly had lost its institutional integrity since the fourth republic started in 1999.
“It is so pathetic and only a reflection of the perversion that has gone on for so long in our beloved country for anyone to ask for those tax reform bills to first be withdrawn from the National Assembly. That means that we should as a people outsource lawmaking to state governors. So why not shut down the National Assembly!
“The National Assembly is and ought to be the best and most veritable venue for negotiations and consultations on matters of national importance! But because that has not been happening so well since 1999, otherwise knowledgeable people think that once it goes to NASS, then it must come out untouched, since the perception is that our national parliament is a rubber-stamp.
“Can you imagine the kind of damage we have done to ourselves not to realize that Parliament is actually and indeed the place where consultation and negotiations are most effective.
“A senator-lecturer Ndume-even said they should withdraw the bills from NASS and then take it to the Governors-as if the Governors are the approximation of our collective wisdom as a people. That senator said that after the governors are done with the bills, then the senator can pass it in 24 hours!
“That means it’s actually the governors who are the lawmakers! Can you imagine a Senator proudly saying that on the floor of the Senate o, without shame?! It is truly incredible how perverse our national ethos has become,” Akande said.
He commended President Bola Tinubu for not yielding to the demands of Ndume and other critics. He added that the Tax Reform Bill presented an opportunity for the National Assembly to leave up to its responsibility.
“Bola Tinubu is right not to withdraw the bills. Instead, let all the amendments be sorted out right there in the National Assembly. Maybe this way we can begin to return some dignity to our national parliament,” Akande added.
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