SGF Boss Mustapha Meets Bukola Saraki

The new Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, met briefly with the Senate leadership yesterday For over 45 minutes, the SGF met behind closed doors with Saraki and other principal officers during which he was reassured that the Senate was not leaving any stone unturned to have a hitch-free budget presentation.

Besides yesterday’s peace moves, a meeting of the body of the principal officers of the National Assembly has been scheduled to hold this morning in the National Assembly, to review the success or otherwise of the peace efforts so far made.

It was learnt that the meeting would be followed by an executive session in each chamber, during which the decision to completely drop all agitations against the president over poor budget implementation would be taken.

The central message is to allow the president present the budget proposal without hitches and later address the issue of poor budget implementation. Mustapha assured Saraki at the meeting of his desire to facilitate a better relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government.

“Let me put it on record that your leadership has helped tremendously in stabilising the polity and also given the purposeful direction that we require at the presidency, to ensure that we deliver on the promises we made to the Nigerian people when we sought their mandate in 2015.

“As the Secretary to the Government, my responsibility is to coordinate the implementation of government policies and ensure that these policies are synergised in such a manner that we would be able to deliver to the people of Nigeria the good things of life which they rightly deserve. In doing that, I will not be able to succeed in that task if I do not get the cooperation of the National Assembly. And that is why I am here today to extend the hand of friendship and solicit the cooperation of the National Assembly because our constitution is very explicit when it comes to the principle of separation of powers.

“I will say this and I will say it quite frankly, sir. We are not in a competition with the National Assembly. We are not rivals with the National Assembly. We are joint partners in this enterprise. If the National Assembly does not cooperate with the presidency, I am not very sure we will be able to achieve the desired result that we want to see, given the mandate that we have freely received from the people of Nigeria.

“So, this is basically to come and assure you that in every area that you are soliciting the cooperation of the presidency, being the Secretary to the Government, I would ensure that the National Assembly receives that cooperation because jointly if we work together, whatever has been lost in the past we can quickly redeem and recover and make progress, so that by the time the first four-year mandate that we received comes to an end we can show on our scorecard that these were the promises we made.”

Saraki in his response admitted: “It is truly a new phase of cooperation between the executive and the legislature and a good omen for our democracy and for our government.

“Your visit truly shows your intention of ensuring that you use your period as SGF to ensure that we truly work together to make Nigeria great. You are very right and I think people like us are not surprised because we know your antecedents. You know that in the presidential system that we are running in this democracy, it is not possible for us to be able to achieve all our goals if the executive and legislature do not have, not just an okay relationship, but a fantastic and very close relationship. And what you have done this afternoon has really brought that closer and I am sure that all my colleagues are going to appreciate that on the floor tomorrow when I communicate this to them.

“Let me assure you that being the first SGF that we have received here, you will definitely get our cooperation and this will definitely be a new page. And we will do all our best to ensure that whatever the issues are before you, we will act to see how best we can to resolve them and work together.”