The National Chairman of the National Unity Party, NUP, Perry Opara, has attributed the shortcomings in the current administration to weakness of the Senate in carrying out its oversight functions.
Opara said the Senate has become a toothless bull dog, adding that they were weak from day one of this administration.
He said this while assessing the state of the economy and making verdict on the performance of the Buhari-led government as it clocks two years in office.
He told Leadership, “I think part of the reasons why this government has not done very well as it should do was that the Senate was weak from day one.
“The Senate become a toothless bull dog, struggling to make peace with the executive and it affected the economy and the administration.
“For the government that was a mistake. If the senate had started work from day one by performing their oversight functions, knowing full well that they are the third arm of government, we would not have this scenario.
“The only thing that makes a democracy thick is the legislature. In a dictatorship there is executive and judiciary.
“So the only thing that makes democracy is one arm of the government called the legislature and this legislative arm has oversight functions.
“There should be independence of the arms of government. They have power to even oversight Mr President.
“They have powers to reject bills coming from Mr President like the way is it done in America. You saw what happened to Obama care recently.
“The Republican Party controls the Senate and the House yet, the Obamacare reform process could not succeed, that is the beauty of democracy.
“Our Senate is waking up from their political slumber but that is not how it is done. Nobody should shake the legislature.
“It is the symbol of democracy. The legislature is the only arm of government that protects democracy and every constituency in Nigeria that is why they are many.”
