The
legislature is the arm of government that defines a democracy. During
military regimes, the executive arm of government continues in one way
or another while the judiciary is allowed to function, although it may
be forced to blow muted trumpets. The legislature is usually dissolved
and its role taken over by the usurpers who combine executive and
legislative powers.
Legislators,
as the representatives of the people, are elected to make laws for the
peace, order and good government of society; to represent their
constituencies and to exercise oversight over the other arms of
government in the checks and balances continuum of the presidential
system of democracy. Societies are governed by law; the quality of the
laws and the lawmaking function in any society define its development,
level of civilisation and ability to be a force in the comity of
nations. It is therefore not about the number of legislative houses
available in Nigeria or the number of members in the legislature but the
quality of the legislative outputs and outcomes that define the
contribution of the legislature to society.
With
the elections over and the inauguration of chief executives at the
state and federal levels, the attention now turns to the leadership of
the legislature since the judiciary is not constituted through
elections. Again, the leadership of the legislature at the federal and
state levels are not elected by popular suffrage but by the legislators
themselves. At this critical time of grave national challenges in all
sectors of social, economic and political life, it is trite that the
best of persons are elected to lead the legislative houses.
These
leaders should be men and women who are fit and proper in terms of
education and learning, moral conduct, leadership qualities and
knowledge of the affairs of the world. The new legislative leaders
should be individuals who understand the backwardness of Nigeria
compared to peers in terms of development; the urgency of moving the
country from its backwardness to new levels of productivity and
development; and the need to reaffirm the rule of law through the
enthronement of merit and justice in all facets of our national life.
Thus, the expectation is a leadership which could possibly be composed
of philosopher kings.
The days should be gone when what
qualifies a person to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives or
state House of Assembly or the President of the Senate should be loyalty
and endorsement of party stalwarts and moneybags. We have been doing
this since 1999 and the results are obvious for all to see – a
legislature that fails to be led in the direction of fulfilling its
fundamental roles. It takes only an insane person to continue insisting
on going down the road of perdition especially after knowledgeable
persons had drawn the attention of the journey man to the trajectory of
his folly. So, at the federal and state levels, we need to ask the
political merchants to back off and let the best hands emerge for the
leadership of the legislature.
The legislature needs to do some
self-review and introspection as they start the legislative tenure.
Pray, why are the Senate and House of Representatives unpopular with the
Nigerian people? Why is the image they conjure in the public mind one
of graft, being the highest paid lawmakers in the world? Even at the
state level, why have we witnessed a lot of boxing, kung-fu and karate
sessions in many state Houses of Assembly? Has the legislature at all
levels delivered value for money in the legislative process considering
their remuneration and public resources spent on them?
Some
federal legislators indeed honestly believe that the populace has been
unfair to them especially about their remuneration and perks of office.
But should they blame the public or themselves considering their refusal
to disclose the components of their budget? If they have nothing to
hide, why are their remunerations still confidential and instead of
complying with the judgments of High Courts, they have used public
resources to go to the Court of Appeal to contend that the same public
who own the resources should not know the details of the legislative
budget? Would you blame the public for their perception when the last
time they saw the federal legislative budget, the sum of N150m was
provided and used for “members image laundering”?
Let those who
intend to preside over the sessions of the legislature address their
colleagues and Nigerians as well with their agenda on how to reposition
the legislature and to contribute to national development. They should
also tell Nigerians what they have done in the legislature for the
number of years they have been there since legislative leaders are
usually ranking members who are not just new members. Nigerians need to
know the number of bills sponsored and their subject matters;
contributions to debates and motions, etc. Just let them tell us exactly
what they did in their previous tenure because, as the Holy Book says,
he who is faithful over a little, shall be faithful over much. Persons
intending to lead the federal legislature should be able to present
their thoughts on how to wield representatives of different ethnic,
religious and geographical persuasions into a fighting force for the
overall benefit of Nigeria.
The legislative agenda should have
as priorities the identification of key bills to be passed into law,
reduction of the cost of governance including the cost of running the
legislature, an accounting code of ethics for the retirement of
legislative overheads and how to ensure the oversight function is used
for the public good. In the matter of lawmaking, it should be evident to
all that we need a National Assembly that will pass the Petroleum
Industry Bill in three months from now; begin the immediate review of
the constitution; reform the budgeting process and make it an
evidence-led exercise; compel the President to set up the National
Council on Public Procurement to deepen procurement reforms; take its
public accounts committee functions seriously and reform the office of
the Auditor-General for greater operational efficiency and
effectiveness. Nigeria is rich in energy resources but poor in energy
supply and suffers epileptic fuel and electricity supplies. What will be
the contribution of the legislature to the electricity and fuel crises?
How can the legislature give life to the land assets made dead by the
obnoxious Land Use Act and use the land tenure system to propel new life
into housing, finance and other facilitators of development? Can we get
a legislative leadership who can and will think out of the box?
In
the area of accountability and transparency, the new leadership of the
National Assembly must commit to the opening up of the federal
parliament’s budget through disaggregation and public availability; to
enact a specific bill empowering the Code of Conduct Bureau to publicise
asset declarations of public officers so that such publicity should no
longer depend on the goodwill of office holders, etc.
There is
so much the legislature can do in a democracy. All that is needed is the
right leadership and presence of mind that is fixed on the Nigerian
developmental ball. The legislature cannot afford any day of bickering
over the composition of its leadership. Party hawks should therefore
stay away and let the legislature elect its leadership and settle down
to its work.
- @censoj
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