- New Secretary General of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, met with speaker of the House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara
- The visit was the first ever of its kind from any SGF to the Representatives
- Dogara commended Mustapha for taking the steps to visit the House of Reps
The newly appointed Secretary General of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, on Monday, November 6, visited the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
Dogara who received Mustapha in his office said he was pleased at the gesture by Mustapha to build a cordial relationship between the legislature and the executive, Daily Post reports.
Dogara said: “It’s never been done. In those days it was invitations extended to them, then a discussion whether they’ll appear at all would ensue. In some cases, some members of the executive would go to to court on the basis of legislative summons.
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“That is because powers of every sort usually led to abuses. So the rule that people always use to guard was that: “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
“And that is why we have the three Departments of Government, the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary, all of us doing the work of democracy. So it was an idea of the founding fathers of democracy that it would take some kind of cooperation and consensus among the different Arms of government for us to make progress as a people.
SGF Boss Mustapha was received by Speaker Dogara in his office. Photo source: House of Reps
“We want to reassure you of our desire to work with the executive in order to see that we deliver the goods for the people. As a matter of fact for us, there really is no distinction in government, it’s just ignorant people who tend to make these distinctions. If the executive fails, there’s no way the Legislature would be exonerated, we are all guilty.
“I’ve always been mindful of our place in history, that is why we have organized this House with the leaders that you see here and some of the members of the House of Representatives to always work on the policies and programmes of government with little or no resistance, bearing in mind that if we succeed, we succeed together and if we don’t succeed history would say, you’re a speaker, you’re a leader and a member of parliament when this government failed.”
In his reply, the SGF thanked Dogara for the warm welcome and for the process that led to the victory of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections.
He said: “Let me single out not for any reason, the speaker. I remember when this whole enterprise started, we were asked to serve in the national convention committee with you. You were the nominee of the House of Reps in that committee and we worked for months to put up a convention and a selection process that is adjudged to be the best ever in this country.
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“I bring you the warm greetings of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to also extend his thanks to your leadership in the House of Representatives for the level of progress that has been achieved thus far in the area of the primary responsibility."
Mustapha had earlier visited the Senate and was received by the Senate President Bukola Saraki.
At the meeting with Saraki, the SGF said: “I will say this and I will say it quite frankly sir: we are not in competition with the National Assembly. We are not rivals with the National Assembly; we are joint partners in this enterprise."
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, November 1, swore in Boss Mustapha as the new Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
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Source: Naija.ng