The Northern Elders Forum, NEF, has warned President Bola Tinubu against the imposition of the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
The spokesperson of the NEF, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, disclosed the position of the forum during an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday.
Mr Baba-Ahmed noted that the forum is not interested in which geo-political zone produced the leaders of the legislative arm, but warned that the lawmakers must be respected to make their choices.
He said, “We believe that the National Assembly should be respected enough to to choose their leaders, Nigerians elected them, from this point on they should be trusted to exercise their judgement of what is right for the country and for the legislature.
“The independence of the legislature is absolutely crucial, it should not be compromised in anyway or form:
“We believe that legislators are people who are responsible and voted for; a legislature is an extremely important organ of government, and the executive has no business dictating to them who they choose to be their leaders; we believe they should be independent.
“All we are asking for is to allow them to choose; don’t be calling them like small boys and telling them the party is giving them formula, the president is telling them this is the way I want things done; they will not tell you what to do; that’s not constitutional.
“Legislators should be allowed to decide where their positions go; that’s the argument I have made. I haven’t made an argument saying it must go to the north; I have said there are other elements that need to be considered, if the decision is made freely and fairly by the legislators, it can go the south, we will live with it, it can go to the north; we will deal with it.
“But we believe that it should be made by those who are going to be led.”
He said it will be interest of the president to allow the lawmakers to choose their leaders.
“It is not in the interest of president Tinubu to impose a leadership on the National Assembly. It is not in his interest.
“In fact, the farther that he is away from the tussle of who becomes senate president, the better,” he added.
