Human Rights activist, Femi Falana, has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the tendency of President Muhammadu Buhari to shun the invitation of the House of Representatives.
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The Green Chamber had invited Buhari over the prevailing insecurity across the country, in particular the killing of 78 rice farmers on farmlands in Zabarmari area of Borno State recently.
The President had indicated his willingness to honour the invitation on Thursday with a joint session of the House and the Senate on the cards but seems to have made a dramatic volte-face going by Attorney General and Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami’s statement.
Malami had said in the statement titled, ‘Buhari’s summons: NASS Operates outside constitutional bounds’, ruled out the President from honouring the invitation saying, “The right of the President to engage the National Assembly and appear before it is inherently discretionary in the President and not at the behest of the National Assembly.”
Falana attributed the decision to possibly decline the invitation to governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in an interview with Punchng.com.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said the governors pushed the narrative that if Buhari honoured the invitation he would be setting a bad precedent that would come back to bite them.
“The President accepted the invitation and announced that he would address the House on Thursday, December 10, 2020. Regrettably, the President has been under pressure from APC governors not to honour the invitation for fear that they too may be similarly invited to address their respective houses of Assembly,” he told the paper.
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