Senators turning into Tinubu's puppets - Atiku fumes over Ndume's sacking

Atiku accused the senators of reducing themselves from elected representatives of the people to mere puppets in Tinubu's hands.

His remarks followed the recent removal of Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume, as the Chief Whip of the Senate following his criticisms of the Tinubu government's policies.

Ndume was also removed as the Deputy Chairman of the Appropriations committee and replaced in the two positions with another Senator from Borno State, Senator Mohammed Monguno.

The move followed a letter written to the Senate President by the Abdullahi Ganduje-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party.

Reacting to the development in a statement on Thursday night, Atiku expressed fears for Nigeria's democracy if what he termed the National Assembly's active participation as enablers of the current administration's anti-people posture continues.

He also accused Tinubu of displaying despotic tendencies.

“This emerging reality must stop. The health of our democracy is being compromised by this unholy alliance between the executive and the legislature and portends a dictatorship that will worsen the lot of the people.

“In the evolution of systems of government, a major concern for thinkers was a governmental framework that will reduce the highhandedness of the executive arm of government.

“It was thought, and rightly so too, that a participatory approach to governance, such that will make the government derive its legitimacy from the people will better serve the interest of the masses.

“Thus, to make sure that the executive does not go overboard in the application of its powers, the legislative arm of government was conceived as a means of protecting the people from the authoritarian tendencies of wielders of state powers.

“Regrettably, however, the democracy in Nigeria in the current administration of President Bola Tinubu has become an anathema to that general principle of democracy as providing primary protection for the people against executive excesses.

“This ugly tendency is being manifested by the steady posturing of our National Assembly, especially the Senate, of taking a reverse course in its core function and becoming a puppet in the hands of the President.

“It is uncharitable that whenever members of the Senate stand on the floor of the red chamber to perform their statutory duty of calling the executive to order, they are immediately reprimanded for doing so.

“When Senator Abdul Ningi called the attention of the country to the incident of budget padding in the 2024 Appropriation bill, rather than calling for a thorough investigation into the observation, the reaction of the Senate was to hand him a suspension.

“Today, the people of Nigeria are victims of an ambiguous budget framework upon which appropriations for the current fiscal year are hinged in the face of a multiplicity of appropriations," the statement partly read.