Executive-legislative relations: The undercurrents

In recent times, the office of the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters has occupied a strategic position in engineering executive-legislative relations, but some undercurrents are already emerging this time. Group Politics Editor, Taiwo Adisa, delves into the details.

The Office of the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters is key to the nature of relationship a regime gets between the Presidential Villa and the legislature. And that office has created some defining moments in the years past. It is fashioned in the same mould as the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), which coordinates the critical security architecture of the country.

Just like the NSA, the Special Adviser, National Assembly Matters coordinates the all-important arm of the government, the legislature, whose activities can make or mar a president. Besides the power of oversight over all segments of the executive authority, the legislature also has the power to override a President’s veto on bills and even impeach a President.

From 1999, when President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed the alter ego of most of the lawmakers of the Fourth Assembly as his Special Adviser in the person of Alhaji Kashim Imam, the seat has always been reserved for Senators or persons who could easily rally the lawmakers to positive friendship with the executive.

In 2003, when Senator Florence Ita Giwa did not return to the chamber, she took over from Alhaji Kashim as the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters. She took the task from where the Borno politician left it and reduced much of the tension associated with the executive/legislature relationship of that era.

Even though outbursts still occurred between the institutions, much of the tension were taken out of public eye through the intervention of Mama Bakassi.

When in 2007, Senator Mohammed Abba Aji took over that office, some strains emerged, but he was still able to foster some friendship. Aba Aji’s main failure was joining up with his colleagues in the executive to put the legislature in the dark as to the true state of health of then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. All that appeared to have been corrected when the woman popularly called the “Joy of the Senate,” Senator Joy Emordi, took over the office. She related well as the true liaison between the executive and the legislature, but got consumed as some of her colleagues thought she was playing more to the side of the lawmakers. That saw to Abba Aji’s brief return until then President Goodluck Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.

For the first time in recent years, Buhari downgraded that office from the Special Adviser status to that of a Senior Special Assistant. He named Senator Solomon Ita Enang as head of the office and Honourable Suleiman Kawu as coordinator of the office in charge of the House of Representatives.

In the years past, the noticeable feud had been between the lawmakers and the Presidents, especially the presiding officers and the Presidents. Right now, a different scenario appears to be creeping into the affairs of the eighth National Assembly. Previously, coordinators of that office had doused tension, ensured nominees are passed with less rancour and ensured bills are considered with limited animosity. They have ensured that the clashes between the Heads of chambers and the Presidents are of lesser magnitude and manageable.

Despite the ugly relationships observed between the legislature and the executive in the Fourth and Fifth Assemblies, the advisers did their jobs as go-betweens who ensured both parties smiled at each other at the end of the day.

It appears now, however, that a different feud is creeping into the management of the two institutions as emerging details in the legislature are fast indicating that the leadership of the legislature as well as the usually taciturn management side of that institution are getting uncomfortable with emerging style of management by the current officeholders.

“Before now, presidential aides to the president on Legislative Matters ensured that a peaceful and harmonious relationship existed between the two arms. They guide, give advice and direct accordingly so as to eliminate unnecessary frictions, suspicions and mischief. The aides discharged their responsibilities without being noticed by the public. They are strategic yet effective. They demonstrated sound knowledge of the legislature based on their individual experiences and knowledge of the institution of legislature,” a source in the legislature said, while decrying what he called the emerging scenario.

Insiders in the National Assembly  said that trends that have been observed since the start of the eighth Senate appear more like some widening gulf between the two chambers with what sources describes as more of thriving misinformation, bootlicking and misleading steps.

There are silent but loud complaints oozing out of the different chambers indicative of the fact that the uneven relationship between the executive and legislature in recent times have more to do with the messages and also the messengers, said a legislative insider.

“Some representatives of the executive in this era appear to speak and act as though they were expressly directed by Mr President. They exhibit attitude that creates suspicion between the arms of government and claim knowledge of issues they really lack knowledge about,” he said.

The grumbles in the legislature span not just the screening and confirmation processes on the floor of the Senate, they extend to conducts of presidential aides at legislative hearings, where they observe that aides tend to behave like lawyers to an accused appearing before a court.

“If the lawmakers complain aloud, the aides would feel they are putting their jobs on the line, but a number of the presidential aides practically and physically misguide appointees and heads of parastatals who appear before committees during investigative hearings or for screenings. Some appointees flaunt their presidential badges in a way to indicate they are untouchables and sacred before the legislative arm. Some appear at meetings and make derogatory remarks aimed at ridiculing the legislature and inciting both arms before the general public,” another legislative insider said.

Insiders gave different examples of instances creating some sort of cold war between the two arms of government in recent times. For instance a source gave the example of what some senators called the unwarranted intervention of a presidential aide when the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris appeared before a Senate committee investigating the allegations against the IGP by Senator Hamman Misau.

Though the lawmakers refrained from scolding their former colleagues in the open, they were said to have seen the unwarranted interventions as outright disloyalty to the Senate.

Another scene cited as capable of creating conflict between the executive and legislature is the conduct of the presidential aides during the November 7 presentation of the 2018 budget estimates.

A ranking lawmaker described the scenario thus: “The aides rudely and practically hijacked the order of protocol and the responsibility of the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA) at the chambers by attempting to direct the President. Once the President enters the chamber, he becomes the property of the CNA, who relates between him and the presiding officers. The protocol has been followed over the years, but the current set of aides attempted to override the well-established protocol.”

While legislators are grumbling about the degenerating relationship between the two arms, the technocrats in the legislature are equally miffed. They don’t speak aloud but sources said that the technocrats are not finding the developments funny at all.

A source in the know described the scenario further: “The Budget is a key responsibility of the lawmakers but the aides these days attempt to claim ownership and even usurp the role of the Clerk to the National Assembly. This is most unfortunate. From 1999 to date, the tradition has been established.

“Budget presentation is not partisan. The CNA takes charge of the proceedings and direct affairs at the joint sitting, while the Senate President and Speaker preside.

“In the known order of protocol for joint sitting, the aides don’t come close. The CNA receives Mr. President; ushers him to the chamber; introduces him to the Presiding officers and afterwards receives the budget and helps him lay it before the joint session of the Assembly on the table.  Mr. President must follow the known order and call his aides who are now applying eye service right on the floor of the chamber. The budget must not lose its respect, order and responsibility.

“You all saw what happened at the sitting when the aides were the ones guiding the President. During the signing of the 2016 budget, one of the aides brought out the Budget document as if he was giving it to the acting President to sign. Whereas the Clerk transmits the budget and all bill to the President and not to his aides. That document cannot be in custody of an aide.

Sources said that if the trend continues, the lawmakers and the management of the National Assembly could formally voice out the abnormalities and that could further negatively affect executive legislature relations.

But the man who currently heads the Presidential team in the National Assembly, Senator Ita Enang is a man who has seen it all on both sides. It should not be difficult for his to maintain the balance of loyalties on either side.

But a senior lawmaker said that the apparent paucity of consultations between the executive and the legislature might have left the aides with so much grounds to cover, thereby yielding ground for overzealousness in some quarters which he said poses threats that could rock the boat of executive/legislative harmony.