A former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye, has delivered a blistering verdict on the National Assembly under Senate President Godswill Akpabio, describing it as the weakest legislative leadership the country has ever produced and little more than an annex of the presidency.
The Deputy Director-General of the African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council made the claim on Monday during an appearance on Arise Television’s Prime Time.
Melaye argued that the Senate has lost its independence, functioning as an extension of President Bola Tinubu’s Villa rather than a co-equal arm of government.
He drew an analogy from auditing, saying that when the auditor and the person being audited become friends, fraud is the inevitable outcome, and that this is exactly the relationship that now exists between the executive and the legislature.
“When an auditor and the person to be audited become friends, fraud will take place; that is the case of our executive and legislature. Akpabio Senate is worst in history. It is now a department under Tinubu’s Villa,” he said.
The former senator added that history offers a clear pattern: whenever the presidency dictates who leads the National Assembly, the result is an Akpabio-style Senate.
He concluded that the current Senate has failed Nigerians because it lacks the will to check the executive.