A former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tunde Bakare, has decried the relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government under President Bola Tinubu, asking the Nigerian leader to “stop playing God”.
Bakare, the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), issued the warning in his state of the nation address delivered in the Lagos auditorium of his church on Sunday.
He raised the alarm over the state of affairs in the country, saying Nigeria is steering in the wrong direction.
“To the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, under whose brand of politics the institution of legislative oversight is collapsing and our democracy is faced with an existential threat, I say: Mr. President, Nigeria is too delicate for this kind of politics,” the preacher said.
“If this state capture was what you meant by emi lo kan, it is an anti-climax that can only be counterproductive in the end. I urge you, Mr. President, to think deeply and reflect on these words: ‘No man is wise enough nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.’ Please, stop playing God!”
“Mr. President, it is through your influence that the Nigerian National Assembly has become a haven for legislative rascality,” Bakare argued.
Recalling the recent activities of the National Assembly, including the approval of a state of emergency in Rivers, the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Bakare said the country’s legislative arm of government is now “an extension of the executive, grossly violating the principles of separation of powers, and rubber-stamping the whims and caprices of” President Tinubu’s office.
“This National Assembly, the Tenth, has by its unconstitutional endorsement of the president’s abuse of powers proven to be the most spineless in our recent history.
“Through its actions and inactions, the National Assembly has, in effect, become the 48th member of the president’s cabinet, while a cabinet minister has, more or less, become a third-term state governor in Rivers State, pampered by the indulgences of the president,” he said in his address.
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