Spineless Legislature: Bakare Launches Fresh Attack on Federal Lawmakers, Says NASS Extension of Tinubu's Cabinet

Prominent Nigerian pastor, Tunde Bakare, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of turning the National Assembly into an extension of the executive arm of government, an action which he described as a violation of the principle of the separation of power.

Bakare, who is founder and general overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, one of Nigeria's influential Pentecostal churches, slammed members of the National Assembly for subjecting themselves to the whims and caprices of the president.

He condemned the national assembly for always singing "on your mandate we shall stand", a song believed to subjugate national assembly members to the decisions of the president.

The fiery pastor said the president has stanpeded members of the National assembly to always bow to his whims and caprices, describing the federal lawmakers as rascals due to the unwavering influence of the president.

He said the national assembly has become a captured institution through the political machination of President Tinubu. He also said the current national assembly is the most ineffective in terms of checks and balances since the start of the fourth republic.

Bakare who gained major political attention in 2011 when he became the running mate to former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari under the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), said the present political banditry was nurtured by the old brigade and passed over to President Tinubu.

He went down memory lane and reminded the president that in 2006, the fourth nation assembly had the audacity to reject the tenure extension bid of the then sitting president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, an action that gave the national assembly to carry out their functions as prescribed by the constitution.

He also said in 2010, the sixth National Assembly summoned the courage to stand against the power hijacking cabal and restored Nigeria to the part of constitutionality by invoking the doctrine necessity.

He continued: "In 2011, the House of Representatives of the 7th nation assembly had the courage to elect its leaders as did the Senate of the eight National Assembly in 2015 defying executive interference."

He said the present National Assembly led by Senator Godswill Akpabio, former governor of Akwa Ibom state and former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, has unconstitutionally endorsed the president's abuse of power.

He, again, described the national assembly as the most spineless in the recent history of Nigeria politics.

Bakare insisted that through its actions and inactions, the national assembly has , in effect, become the fortieth member of the president's cabinet, hence it has no power to act on its own.

Besides being a pastor, Bakare is a lawyer, an author, and political activist known for his outspoken views on national issues.

Before entering into full time ministry, Bakare practiced law after graduating from the University of Lagos and being called to the Nigerian Bar in 1981.