You have fascist agenda, Dogara accuses Tinubu

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara has accused the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of operating a fascist agenda in the running of the country.

This latest tirade is in a response to Senator Tinubu’s
allegation that the two presiding officers of the National Assembly of engage
in budget impropriety.

The Speaker in his response said, “We do not expect Asiwaju
Tinubu to dwell on brazen mendacity, much less murder facts and decorum in his
rabid bid to justify his patently clear fascist agenda of controlling all
levers of power in Nigeria.”

Dogara also accused the APC leader of having a “wayward lust
for power”.

The Speaker gave the response on Tuesday in a statement by
his special adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan.

Senate President Bukola Saraki had on Monday replied Tinubu.
He said it is “unfortunate” that after 22 months in the legislature, Tinubu
does “not have a better understanding of how the legislature works”.

“Since we have taken it for granted that Tinubu’s attack on
Saraki every three months (quarterly) will come as expected, we would just have
ignored his statement but for the fact that it was filled with untruth,
fallacies and misrepresentations,” Mr Saraki’s office said. “It is unfortunate
that a man like Tinubu who had been in the Senate (though for 22 months and
under a military regime) should not have a better understanding of how the
legislature works.”

Dogara, in his reaction, challenged the APC national leader
to provide evidence to back his allegations.

“We advise Asiwaju Tinubu to be circumspect in his use of
language. In this case, he spoke as a spokesperson of depravity,” Dogara said.

“Our reaction must, therefore, be seen as a provoked
counter-punch. Anyone can descend into the gutter if he so wishes but no one
has a monopoly of gutter language.”

“We won’t run an adult day care centre anymore on matters
like this,” he added.

Dogara restated his view that the National Assembly “is not
a rubber stamp parliament” and therefore “reserves the right, working
cooperatively with the Executive to interrogate projects unilaterally inserted
by the Executive branch without the input of or consultation with Parliament.”

He also queried Tinubu’s academic qualifications, saying:
“The legislature cannot be accused of padding a budget it has unquestionable
constitutional power to review. The budget is a law and the Executive does not
make laws.”

“Therefore, it’s only the ignorant and those who hold
dubious academic certificates that say the maker of a document has padded the
document that only he can constitutionally make.

“In the words of his lordship, Hon Justice Gabriel Kolawole
of the Federal High court, in suit No.FHC/ABJ/CS/259/2014 delivered on March 9,
2016, ‘the National Assembly was not created by drafters of the Constitution
and imbued with the powers to receive ‘budget estimates’ which the first
defendant is constitutionally empowered to prepare and lay before it, as a
rubber stamp parliament.”

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