Nigeria’s National Assembly on Friday kickstarted an “eye service” project which will see muslim federal lawmakers join President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House for jumaat service every Friday.
The
arrangement, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, told journalists, is to enable lawmakers
meet the president more regularly, with a view to improving on the relationship
between the executive and the legislature.
Mr.
Ndume spoke on Friday shortly after he and five other lawmakers (two Senators
and three members of the House) joined Mr. Buhari in prayer at the State House
mosque.
“We
are trying to improve executive and legislature relationship,” Mr. Ndume said.
“Part of the ways is for few selected members of the National Nssembly to join
the president in prayers on Fridays.
“As
you can see, there are three members of the House of Representatives and three
members of the Senate. You will be seeing more of this in the near future in
order to cement our relationship.”
Taking
an action just to be seen to be doing so or to simply please another person is
commonly referred to as “eye service” in Nigeria.
The
relationship between President Buhari and the Senate deteriorated after the
Federal Government decided to prosecute Senate President Bukola Saraki and his
deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, for alleged forgery of Senate Rules that brought them
to office.
Messrs
Saraki and Buhari engaged each other in a war of words after the former was
arraigned, alongside his alleged conspirators.
To remedy the situation, Mr. Ndume said the National Assembly
was deploying selected Muslim lawmakers to observe Jumat service at the State
House so as be seen by Mr. Buhari every Friday.
-Premium Times
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