The Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Clement Nwankwo, has enjoined the incoming National Assembly (NASS), to fully exert its powers as entrenched in the constitution.

“I think that the National Assembly needs to get to the point where it can exercise its power and sanction an agency of government that violates the exercise of its power,” Nwankwo said during Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.

He stated that the powers of the national assembly to give or allocate zero budget to an agency or commission should be such that it helps to enforce accountability and the powers of oversight of the National Assembly.

The PLAC boss also noted that there are too much arbitrary powers in the hands of presiding officers, and committee chairmen against members of the committee.

“The problem is when you have members-elect, presiding officers or leadership that has not been chosen from amongst themselves, that has been dictated to them, and that, I think is what we see with the reaction.

“The party with the majority should have the constitutional power to be given the privilege to elect its own presiding officer for the National Assembly and as well leadership of the committee.

“What we should see is that that leadership that emerges does not become subservient to the executive,” he stated.

Nwankwo faulted the bills and proposal’s vetting system of the National Assembly, adding that there are expectations from people as to what the National Assembly should do constitutionally.

“The executive comes up making a request for loans and they simply say ‘Yes, carry go’. The executive is taking decisions that the national assembly is not responding to,” he said.

According to him, the manifested incompetence of government officials is due to the incautions review of nominations and appointment of these officials into public office.

“The executive nominates people for positions and you don’t ask questions, that’s why you had what you had with Adamawa State where the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), went rogue and that’s why we have so many RECs who are party members.

“Been appointed, the National Assembly didn’t do its job and that is part of what influenced the outcome of the elections when you appoint partisans into the electoral commission,

“You should have a situation where the National Assembly exercises its power without necessary recourse to the situation,” he said.