The Northern Elders Forum, NEF, has said that the legislators of the 10th National Assembly should be allowed to choose their own leaders.
Spokesperson of the NEF, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed during an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday said, the position of the NEF was that President Bola Tinubu should steer clear of the leadership tussle in the National Assembly because imposing leaders on the legislators was “not in his best interest.”
The NEF Spokesman said, “We believe that the National Assembly should be respected enough to be allowed members of the National Assembly to choose their leaders, Nigerians elected them, from this point on they should be trusted to exercise the judgement of what is right for the country and for the legislature, independence of the legislature is absolutely crucial, it should not be compromised in anyway or form.
“We believe that legislators are people who are responsible, voted for, a legislature is an extremely important organ of government the executive has no business dictating to them who they choose to be their leaders; we believe they should be independent”
“We disagree with any arrangement that tells an elected representative not his own people but someone else they go to and choose someone else, they can exercise, they should consult, they should respect their parties but ultimately they exercise responsibilities that the party itself cannot intervene in, shouldn’t intervene in and its dangerous for democracy for the party to go to the length it goes to tell legislators who has been elected by their constituencies not by their parties their parties filled them there but they were elected by the people.
“All we are asking for is to allow them to choose don’t be calling them like small boys and be telling them the party giving them formula, the president telling them this is the way I want things done they will not tell you what to do; that’s not constitutional.
“Legislators should be allowed to decide where their positions go that’s the argument I have made I haven’t made an argument saying it must go to the north I have said there are other elements that needs to be considered, if the decision is made freely and fairly by the legislators, it can go the south, we will live with it, it can go to the north we will deal with it.”
“But we believed that it should be made by those who are going to be led.”
He also said it was not in the interest of President Bola Tinubu to impose leadership on the legislators.
“It is not in the interest of president Tinubu to impose a leadership on the National Assembly. It is not in his interest.”
“In fact, the farther that he is away from the tussle of who becomes senate president, the better.”
