Show Of Shame, You Cannot Justify Disrespecting The President – Ayogu Eze To PDP

This Is Show Of Shame.You Cannot Justify Disrespecting The President – Ayogu Eze To PDP lawmakers

A
ranking Nigerian senator and the governorship candidate of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2019 election in Enugu Sate, Sen.
Ayogu Eze has condemned what transpired in the National Assembly when
President Muhammad Buhari presented the 2019 appropriation to a joint
sitting of the assembly.

Sen. Eze said that it was unprecedented
for members of the National Assembly who pride themselves as the true
representatives of the people to descend to a level where they left
Nigerians with the difficult task of distinguishing between them and
kindergarten delinquents, arguing that their actions had portrayed our
hallowed assembly as a place where people serve only their selfish
interest.

“These are fathers and mothers of adults and children
who were probably sitting in front of their television sets watching
these unguarded conducts. How would they explain their behavior on live
television to their spouses and children? What examples were they
setting for a nation that looks up to them for leadership”, Sen. Eze
asked.

The APC guber candidate said that legislators are usually
allowed their idiosyncrasies but not in a manner that would desecrate
the very institution whose integrity they’re elected to protect.

Sen.
Eze said the National Assembly owes the people of Nigeria an apology
for “this show of shame”, adding that nothing on earth can justify
disrespecting the “president while performing one of his most sacred
constitutional responsibilities of charting a course of how the ship of
state would be moved in the next 12 months.”

He said the
unfortunate thing is that the same people who are expected to process
and pass this budget for the benefit of Nigerians were too preoccupied
with their noisy chants to be able to listen to the details of the
budget, arguing that “the net effect of this disruptive conduct will
show during the budget defense and passage when the items in the budget
would appear completely alien to most of them.”

He commended the
president for his statesmanship and for not losing his cool even in the
face of the uninvited provocation. He said: “The President’s poise and
carriage portrayed him as a mature statesman, who even in the face of a
very unfortunate situation did not lose his composure and confidence. It
showed him as the leader Nigeria needs to navigate these turbulent
times.”

Urging the President not to lose focus in his
determination to reposition Nigeria to continue to play her leading role
of serving as the engine of growth on the African continent, Sen. Eze
tasked his fellow lawmakers to always resist the temptation of allowing
personal issues to becloud their sense of patriotism and nationalism,
arguing that budget presentation is a solemn national assignment that no
Nigerian should toy with.

“We know the legislature as the
amphitheater of debate and reasoning but certainly not an arena to play
to the gallery in the hope of hoodwinking the electorate into electing
or re-electing us to our desired offices “, Sen. Eze said, adding: “We
as legislators must always resist the temptation to descend to theatrics
on the floor of the National Assembly no matter how hotly we feel about
the issues in the polity.”

Sen. Eze also said it was worrisome
for the legislators to disrespect their own leadership to the extend of
disallowing them to speak on such an important occasion, even after
disobeying the best efforts of the presiding officers to call them to
order throughout the entire budget presentation, arguing that what they
did was an indirect vote of no confidence in the leadership of both
chambers of the National Assembly.