Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has slammed the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu in harsh tone, over his comments that the 8th National Assembly under him and Senate President Bukola Saraki delayed and padded budgets, and hampered President Muhammadu Buhari’s lofty projects for the country.
According to him, Tinubu was pursuing a fascist agenda of controlling all levers of power in Nigeria, asking him to come clean on his quest to install the next Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 9th Assembly.
On Sunday, Tinubu had said he was backing President Buhari and APC’s adoption of Senator Ahmad Lawan for Senate Presidency, and Femi Gbajabiamila for the House of Representatives speaker to avert a repeat of what happened in 2015 when Saraki and Dogara allegedly hijacked both positions and used them against Buhari’s administration.
Reacting to the allegations yesterday, Dogara said it was only an ignorant person that would accuse the National Assembly of budget padding.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Hassan Turaki, the speaker also claimed that in the last four years, Tinubu had schemed against Buhari’s government.
The statement read in parts: “We have noted the statement issued on April 21, 2019 by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu wherein he stated his reasons for sponsoring or supporting some aspirants to various leadership positions in the forthcoming 9th Assembly.
“Ordinarily, this would not have elicited any response from Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, as Asiwaju is entitled to sponsor those he believes will have no choice but answer to his dog whistles anytime he blows same in his capacity as the self-acclaimed national leader of his party.
“If Asiwaju had confined his intervention to stubborn facts, this response would not have been necessary. He, however, used the opportunity to manufacture falsehoods and paint a non-existing picture of the stewardship of Mr Speaker and the work of the 8th House of Representatives under his watch.
“Asiwaju Tinubu accused the leadership of the National Assembly of stymieing ‘the APC legislative initiatives while attempting to foist noxious reactionary and self-interest legislation on the nation.’
‘Tinubu had said further: ‘Just look at the way Saraki and Dogara and their ilk hijacked the budget process these past four years. National budgets were delayed and distorted as these actors repeatedly sought to pad budgets with pet projects that would profit them.
‘Even worse, they cut funds intended to prosper projects that would have benefited the average person. After four years of their antics halting the progress of government, we should do all we can to prevent a repeat of their malign control of the National Assembly.’ He generously used the usual unexplained words like installing a progressive leadership and so on.”
