Since the emergence of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, the nation has seen a commendable improvement in the relationship between the National Assembly and the Executive led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In the past, the relations between these two critical arms of government have been characterized by unbridled tensions, gross misunderstanding, bad blood, aggravated rancour and undue mistrust.
At the inception of this political dispensation in 1999, the relationship between the National Assembly and the Executive led by President Olusegun Obasanjo was largely adversarial. The overbearing nature of President Obasanjo and the propensity to meddle in the internal affairs of the national legislature at that early stage brought the National Assembly and the Executive into collision. This was the foundation of the crisis of confidence that followed and the subsequent instability in the leadership of the National Assembly.
Within this period, the attrition rate in the leadership of the National Assembly, arising from externally induced impeachments, was very high and embarrassing. It got so bad that under an eight year period, between 1999 and 2007, the Senate witnessed a turn-over of five Senate Presidents. The House of Representatives was similarly not spared in the leadership crises where a serving Speaker was forced to resign.
The National Assembly, in subsequent years did not fully recover from the seeds of discords and instability that were sown at the beginning. Under Presidents Umar Musa Yar`Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, there were some little improvements in the relationship between the Assembly and the Executive. However, it was not totally free of frictions and rancour. At different times, both Presidents were threatened with impeachments over the issue of budget implementation.
In the first four years of the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, the relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki was anything but cordial. It was, at most, cantankerous and adversarial. No meaningful social and economic development could be achieved by the Buhari administration as a result of the fractured relationship that existed between the National Assembly and the Executive at that time. The second coming of Buhari saw to the emergence of a pliant and subservient National Assembly leadership that was too beholden to the whims and caprices of the Executive. It could, therefore, not maintain the balance in government which was expected of it.
Today, the story is different under the charismatic leadership of Senator Akpabio, popularly known as the uncommon transformative leader. He has developed a close and cordial relationship with the Executive arm of government without compromising the independence of the National Assembly. He carries himself with admirable respect and uncommon dignity. He is ready to support policy proposals and initiatives once they are in the best interest of the nation.
The growing rapprochement between Akpabio and Tinubu is already yielding positive results for the nation as evidenced in the functional and speedy take off of key national institutions following the legislative backing of the National Assembly. The nominees of President Tinubu to the headship of critical institutions like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) have been successfully screened and passed.
We also saw the mature and professional manner the Senate, under Akpabio, handled the screening and confirmation of Ministerial nominees. In spite of what critics may say to the contrary, the Senate showed diligence and thoroughness in the exercise. We did not see a situation of garbage in and garbage out. Some of the nominees could not scale through in spite of partisan pressures that were brought to bear on the Senate. This shows that the 10th Senate under Akpabio is not a rubber stamp. It is a Senate that is driven by a higher desire to serve the best interest of the nation.
Akpabio`s dynamism and his strategic partnership with President Tinubu is also opening new vistas of opportunities for our nation on the international stage. Just last week, he led the Nigerian parliamentary delegation to the 147th session of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) General Assembly which took place in Luanda, the Angolan capital. The IPU is the global organization of national parliaments founded in 1889, and dedicated to promoting peace through parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue.
After a successful participation, he was elected as a Member of the Executive Committee of the global parliamentary body. By that election, he has broken a 59 year-old jinx in the history of Nigeria`s involvement in the leadership of IPU. The last time a Nigerian held such a ranking position in IPU was in 1964. This is historic and highly commendable. The feat, however, could not have been achieved without the strategic Tinubu-Akpabio partnership which is working for the common good of our country.
Speaking on the essence of his election into the governing body of the IPU, Akpabio highlighted the benefits that would accrue to the nation: “A lot of employment opportunities will be created. A lot of offices will be opened. Sub-national offices will be opened and a lot of children who wish to be diplomats will have the opportunity of working there and it will also attract foreign direct investments in the area of training and retraining and capacity building not just for the legislators but for people who are in different fields. It’s quite a lot actually. The benefits are enormous. We thank God.”
The Senate President rightly dedicated his victory to President Tinubu, noting that the Nigerian delegation was consulting and briefing him on what was going on. He stated: “There were very critical decisions we had to make sure that he was involved as the President of the country because that was an international body. You can’t take a wrong step.”
The Tinubu-Akpabio partnership is a political model that deserves celebration. As a former Senator himself, Tinubu obviously understands the dynamics and configurations of power in the National Assembly. With the pragmatism of Akpabio, the combination will definitely deliver inclusive development to the nation.
Dr. Nwosu, a political analyst, wrote in from Abuja.

It has become a pattern for some individuals, CSOs and a section of the media to pick one or two line items every budget cycle for sensational headlines, deliberately ignoring context in their reporting.
The public that should benefit from good journalism, which should primarily educate and adequately inform, is left confused and miseducated due to mischaracterisation of issues and misrepresentation of facts.
The trending issues on social media since yesterday are two items in the 2023 supplementary budget. One is the provision for a presidential yacht in the supplementary budget by the Navy and the other is over N6 billion for vehicles to the State House.
It is important to state clearly that President Bola Tinubu didn’t ask for a presidential yatch and I doubt he needs one to perform the functions of his office. From what I know, the request for a yacht, however it is named or couched in the budget is from the Navy and they must have operational reasons for why it is required.

The budget office should be in a position to also explain to the public why such expenditure should be accommodated now, considering the economic situation of the country. I must readily admit that the one reason our budgeting system has been a subject of public attack is the very simplistic way some of the line items are described by civil servants, who prepare the budget. Examples abound. Sometimes in 2016, an Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP) project of the Ministry of Solid Minerals worth over N300m then was captured in that year’s budget as “website”. Naturally, it generated a massive controversy as people, rightly, asked to know the type of website that will be built with N300million.
It is important to say that journalism should enrich public enlightenment and not create an atmosphere of siege. It is poor reporting to always reduce State House budgetary provisions to the President and Vice President. When the State House makes provision for vehicles, it is reported as if it is the President that will use all the vehicles or eat all the food when a provision is made for food and catering services. We have had such inaccurate reporting in the past. A President and Vice President cannot, for any reason, spend N20 million naira to eat in a year if it is about the food they will eat as first and second families. How much food can a person really eat? Yet, we will read headlines that Tinubu, Buhari, Jonathan or whoever the President is wants to spend N5 billion on food and catering in a year when in actual fact such budgetary provisions are made to accommodate many state events, meetings, hosting of VIPs, foreign dignitaries, and even visits by other Head of States, and o bilateral and multilateral meetings that the State House will deal with in a given year.
It is worth stating that in August this year President Tinubu as the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of States and Governments of ECOWAS hosted two extraordinary summits of the regional body over the political crisis in Niger Republic. The two summits required catering services for the ECOWAS leaders and their delegation. Just this past Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was on a State Visit to Nigeria with a delegation of top business men and women from Germany. The President hosted the visiting Chancellor and his delegation to a state banquet. State House budget for food and catering services is spent on such events. It is not spent essentially to feed the President and Vice President.
On matters of vehicles, the N6 billion budget provision is not to buy vehicles for the President and Vice President alone. President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima are not using any new vehicles in their fleet. They are using inherited vehicles. There are hundreds of civil servants and political aides working at the State House who need operational vehicles. I am a senior aide of the President. I am using my personal car and at my own expense since I resumed work more than five months ago. Like me, virtually all the appointees of the President are using personal vehicles at their own expense for official duties. Most of the vehicles in the pool for various departments are run down. Even members of the State House Press Corps do not have functional bus to ease their movement. I know for a fact that a request for a new bus for State House Press Corps is captured in the supplementary budget for vehicles.
It is necessary to add that none of the political appointees has drawn any benefit and perks from public treasury. I must add that in 5 months, we have not even received a kobo as salary because of procedural issues involved in capturing new appointees on the payroll via IPPIS.
The Presidency is a huge Bureaucracy with hundreds of staff. Any budget head for the State House is to run the system, not for epicurean fantasy of a sitting President and Vice President. In this page-view-centric and social media age, it is easy to provoke public rage. It is also tempting for bloggers and quack journalists to take the easy road of sensationalism to attract traffic to their blogs and news websites. But good journalism, I believe, should be about substance and nuanced reporting.
-Ajayi is a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity