Hearty
congratulations to all the newly elected principal officers of the
eighth national and state assemblies. It will be recalled that sequel to
the March 28 and April 11, 2015 elections which produced new members of
the Senate, House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly,
political parties of these members had organised retreats for them to
share with them their expectations. In the same vein, the National
Institute for Legislative Studies as well as Policy and Legal Advocacy
Centre, Abuja had also organised trainings for them. It is my sincere
hope that the knowledge imparted on them at the series of training and
retreats will be put to good use.
With the inauguration of
the legislative arm at both federal and state levels as well as the
emergence of principal officers (Senate President, Deputy Senate
President, Speaker House of Representatives, Speakers, state Houses of
Assembly, Deputy Speakers, Majority Leaders, Minority Leaders, Chief
Whips, chairpersons and vice chairpersons of various committees) after
much horse-trading and power play, it is now time to institute good
governance and deepen our democracy. The principal officers and indeed
all members of the legislative arm should cease to see themselves
primarily as party men and women but as representatives of the people of
Nigeria.
If truth be told, Nigerian
legislators are seen more as parasites on the country’s economy. They
are routinely criticised for earning so much for doing little work. The
Seventh Senate said it passed 123 bills in four years but 46 of such
were passed on the eve of its departure causing people to ask why the
lawmkers filibustered on the passage of those bills till the twilight of
their tenure. People have also asked why many of the bills that would
help promote good governance such as the Petroleum Industry Bill were
not passed into law.
It is heartwarming that much of the
leadership crises that rocked previous National Assembly did not
manifest in the last one. Former Senate President David Mark and all of
his principal officers as well as former Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and his
principal officers held their positions for four solid years since their
inauguration in June 2011. They managed to navigate their way round the
proverbial banana peel that had accounted for the fall of many of their
predecessors. It remains to be seen how the Eighth National Assembly
will be able to maintain that track record given the intrigues that
played out ahead of the elections of its principal officers.
It
is very distasteful that many state Houses of Assembly were rocked by
leadership crises during the last session. Notable among them were
Ekiti, Enugu, Rivers, Taraba and Edo states. It is a sad commentary on
our national life that in more than half of the state assemblies,
principal officers were routinely changed over flimsy excuses. It is
however noteworthy that many of the crises witnessed in both the
national and state assemblies were sponsored mostly by the executive
arm, especially the governors who ruled like emperors or Lord of the
Manor.
Many of Nigerian governors brook no disobedience to their
orders to the state Houses of Assembly. Any Speaker who is unwilling to
carry out the governor’s command is deemed disloyal to the government
and has his or her removal stage-managed. Similar stories abound at the
national level especially during the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo
under whose tenure between 1999 and 2007, the Senate had five
presidents. (Evan Enwerem, Chuba Okadigbo, Pius Anyim, Adolphus Wabara
and Ken Nnamani).
The political parties under which some of the
lawmakers were elected also contributed in no small measure to the
instability experienced in many of the legislative houses. It is on
record that the Peoples Democratic Party in a bid at demonstrating party
supremacy wanted Mrs Mulikat Akande Adeola as the Speaker of the House
of Representatives in the last dispensation. The lawmakers revolted and
voted en masse for Aminu Tambuwal. A similar scenario has also played
out in the Eight National Assembly where by sleight, the party wanted
its members to vote for Senator Ahmed Lawan as Senate President and Femi
Gbajabiamila as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. As it
turned out Tuesday, the members rebelled and voted instead for Bukola
Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as the Senate President and Speaker of the
House of Representatives respectively. The political crisis that
engulfed the Ekiti State House of Assembly after the loss of the APC in
the governorship election of June 21, 2014 to the PDP’s Ayodele Peter
Fayose is traceable to the APC whose lawmakers deliberately made the
state ungovernable for the new helmsman by serving him an impeachment
notice.
My advice to the legislative houses at the federal and
state levels are as follows: Members should work for national interest
and not parochial or sectional interest. It should be Nigeria first
before any other considerations. Second, new members should familiarise
themselves with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution particularly as
enunciated in Chapter Five which deals with the Legislature. They should
also read and digest the House Rules guiding the activities of their
assemblies. Third, much as I do not want them to be a rubber stamp
legislature or an assembly of “Yes Men and Women”, they should also
ensure that their relationship with the other arms of government
especially the Executive is not adversarial. The roles of the three arms
of government are clearly spelt out in the Nigerian constitution which
is the ground norm and each is expected to serve as checks on the other.
Invariably, much as the presidential system of government which Nigeria
runs promotes separation of powers, it also institutes checks and
balances to prevent one arm becoming overbearing over the others.
I
also enjoin the newly inaugurated lawmakers to be dutiful,
conscientious and painstaking in their deliberations. They should not be
absentee lawmakers and should shun personal aggrandisement and scandals
which dogged previous assemblies. They should cut down on their
vacations and work to ensure that no bill spends more than one year or a
maximum of two years before they are passed. It is disheartening that
many bills spend four years before they sail through; this is not good
enough. Furthermore, our legislators should also ensure a prompt
decision on the list of appointees sent to them from the executive, take
their oversight functions seriously and come up with motions that
promote public good. If they fail to be good representatives of the
people, they must realise that the constitution has given the
electorates power to recall them and if that is not feasible, it will
soon be another general elections when they will seek to renew their
mandate.
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