A former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Farouk Aliyu, says the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is not an orator and as such should not address the National Assembly sitting today.
According to Aliyu who is a member of the All Progressives Congress and a close ally to the president, the service chiefs should attend the NASS invitation in lieu of Buhari.
The House of Representatives led by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, had last week invited Buhari over the rising insecurity and the killing of over 43 rice farmers by Boko Haram terrorists in Borno State.
An aide to the President, Lauretta Onochie, had also revealed that Buhari would appear before a joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday. However, reports began to filter in on Tuesday that the President had decided not to attend the meeting any longer.
We earlier on Wednesday on reported that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said the National Assembly lacked the power to invite the President to speak on security matters.
Speaking last night, the former Minority Leader in the House of Representatives backed Malami, saying, “There are so many things that the President may divulge and people will say, ‘Why did he even go? He shouldn’t have gone.’”
Aliyu argued, “President Buhari is not an orator. There are orators, people who can talk and talk. People are different.”
The APC member, who spoke Wednesday while featuring on a television programme in Abuja, said, “If I were to advise Mr President, I will tell Mr President not to go. He should probably allow the service chiefs to go and explain (things) because there are certain details that should probably be explained in camera.”
“As a former minority leader in the House, I don’t think the President should appear, not at this time when things are so difficult (and) the country is going through challenges. Is the President going to appear there to tell the National Assembly the strategies being taken by the government?
“Is he going there for an interactive session? Not even the Speaker can assure the President or his party that Mr President may not be embarrassed.”
