Nigeria: Senate On War Path With Jonathan Over Presidential Media Chat

There are indications that the Senate is poised to engage the Presidency in a fresh battle for continuing to treat its resolutions with a pinch of salt.On Thursday, the Senate, during the second reading of a bill sponsored by Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River Central), queried President Goodluck Jonathan’s moral and constitutional justification for refusing to sign the State of the Nation Address Bill passed in the last Assembly.

Apparently, Jonathan stirred the hornet’s net with the last Sunday’s presidential media chat, as senators got angrier than ever before, believing that if the State of the Nation Address Bill had been assented to, it would have paved way for the president to address Nigerians through the parliament.

Ndoma-Egba, while leading debate on his bill titled “A Bill for an Act to Make Provision for the State of the Nation Address By the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and For Other Matters Connected Therewith” said bill sought to enshrine a forum where the president, in company of the vice president and the head of the judicial arm of government, presents to a joint sitting of the National Assembly, an address on critical issues, comprehensively appraising and reflecting on government performance in the past year and setting goals and agenda for the ensuing year through broad ideas and specific details.

He stressed that the bill was to take stock of the nation, its condition, the government and its performance as well as Nigerians and their well-being.

He said most of the advanced countries, especially the United State of America, Mexico, Russia and Philippines as well as a number of emerging democratic nations such as South Africa, Ghana and Zimbabwe have entrenched State of the Nation in their process of governance, even as a constitutional obligation.

He added that the operation of the bill, when passed, would entail no more cost than recurrent expenditures in preparing and presenting the address and reports required in the bill.