Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has said Nigeria's house of assembly is full of rubbers who lack the courage to discharge its "constitutional checks and balance role over the executive arm of government."
Wike who made the statement during the occasion of the 61st Independence Anniversary of Nigeria in Port Harcourt on Friday, said for the past six years, the country’s democracy was being weakened and put to enormous stress and jeopardy with the continuous violation of the constitution by the Federal Government and other public institutions.
The governor said: “With democracy, Nigerians expected strong national institutions, the bureaucracy, the security institutions and the Independent National Electoral Commission to be loyal only to the constitution, the law and the people.
“But today, after 61 years of independence and 22 years of unbroken democracy, it only seems there’s not much to be excited about Nigeria except our national sense of independence and unity that had endured this long in the face of sustained fartricidal assaults to its existence.
“Let us make a candid assessment of the situation of our country, especially in the last six years, and tell ourselves some hard, undiluted truths. First of all, we cannot deny that most of the countries that started with us 61 years ago are far more advanced and developed with superlative standards of living for their people than Nigeria.
“Our democracy is being weakened and put to enormous stress and jeopardy with the continuous violation of our constitution by the Federal Government and other public institutions.
“The National Assembly has literarily abandoned its constitutional checks and balance role over the executive arm of government and become a slavish appendage to the Federal Government as rubber stamp Assembly.
“Neither is the situation and postures of the nation’s judiciary any better, where only a few judicial officers can stand the test of judicial courage, integrity and commitment to substantial justice in the performance of their constitutional responsibilities, while the entire judiciary, especially at the national level, has been bullied to nervousness to the detriment of our democracy, the rule of law and social justice.”