Oyegun: President Buhari is a democrat, not interested in controlling National Assembly

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a democrat, who does not subscribe to the idea of “controlling” the National Assembly as was the case when the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was in charge of the country.

He made this known in a statement issued on Wednesday in reaction to what he called attempts by the PDP to give a political coloration and other negative interpretations to Senate’s decision on Tuesday to reject the list of non-career ambassadorial nominees forwarded to it by the President.

Oyegun described as unnecessary and misleading, the statement credited to a faction of the PDP suggesting a rift between both arms of government following the Senate’s return of the list of non-career ambassadors to the presidency for review.

The Senate had, while adopting the report of its Committee on Foreign Affairs, on Tuesday stated that the decision to return the list followed petitions received on the nominations. It proceeded to ask the presidency to review the ambassadorial list.

According to the APC Chairman, “Respect for the principle of the Rule of Law and the constitutional provisions of Separation of Power between the three arms of government is a best practice and also healthy for our democracy. The powers and duties of the three arms of government are clearly spelt out in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and President Muhammadu Buhari respects them.”