Legislative assemblies in the last one year

 

There are three arms of government namely the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. These three are both dependent and independent of one another. Yes, they are stand-alone institutions but one cannot do without the other in a democracy. The concept of separation of powers comes with checks and balances. Take, for instance, certain categories of the president’s nominees had to be screened and confirmed by the Senate. Some high-level judicial officers like judges of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court have to be screened and confirmed by federal lawmakers. While the executive may initiate the appropriation bill, better known as the budget, the proposal has to be vetted by the legislative assembly and passed before the presidential assent will be required.

Scholars believe that the legislature is the most important arm of government because it is made up of people’s representatives. The legislative arm has the highest number of the 11,082 elective political offices in Nigeria. There are 8,809 councillors who make up the legislative arm of the local governments; 993 members at the state Houses of Assembly across the 36 states and 469 federal lawmakers made up of 360 House of Representatives members and 109 Senators. Unlike the states which have a unicameral legislature, Nigeria has a bi-cameral legislature at the centre. The legislature performs three core functions: lawmaking, representation, and oversight.

As important as the legislature is, it is the arm of government worst affected by military coups. Cumulatively, Nigeria has 29 years of military interregnum in our 64 years of independence. Each time the military struck and seized the reins of power, it would dissolve the national and state assemblies and rule the country by decrees and edicts. This has invariably stunted the development of that important arm of government as the country has to start afresh after each return to civil rule. It is noteworthy that it is not only the legislature that suffers fatality after each coup, other democratic institutions like the election management bodies and the political parties are equally dissolved and banned.

Since the return to civil rule in 1999 which signposts the commencement of this Fourth Republic, the legislature has been able to overcome its initial instability when leadership is changed frequently to a more stabilised institution. Remember, under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, there were five presidents of the Senate namely, Evans Enwerem, Chuba Okadigbo, Anyim Pius Ayim, Adolphus Wabara, and Ken Nnamani. In the same period, there were three Speakers of the House of Representatives namely Salisu Buhari, Ghali Na’Abba, and Aminu Masari. While the National Assembly has stabilised in terms of leadership, many state Houses of Assembly are still embroiled in the frequent change of leadership as recently witnessed in Ogun and Cross Rivers states.

This month, starting from June 13 to the end of the month, legislative assemblies were inaugurated after the 2023 general elections. On June 13, 2023, Godswill Akpabio was elected the President of the Senate while Dr Tajudeen Abass was also elected on that day as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Opinions are divergent on the achievements of the National Assembly in the last one year. In terms of lawmaking, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, in an article titled “Exploits of the 10th Senate” published in BusinessDay newspaper on June 16, 2024, said inter alia, “As of June 11, 2024, our records revealed that at least 477 bills were initiated since the 10th Senate kicked off its activities precisely on June 13, 2023. Of this figure, only 25 bills were fully passed into law while others are currently at different stages before the Senate. Comparatively, this figure only accounts for 5.24 per cent of the entire bills introduced within the timeframe.”

The distinguished Senator went on to say, “Apart from the bills, the Senate arrived at 115 resolutions, which are far-reaching in consequence; profound in their significance to our economic development and strategic to the cohesion, growth and stability of our nation. Each of these resolutions arose from motions of national importance, which different distinguished Senators sponsored after due diligence was conducted.”

 “Also, within the timeframe, the Senate received and treated petitions from members of the public on diverse matters of grave concern. Despite time constraints, 50 of the public petitions were successfully and satisfactorily resolved. The Senate equally screened and confirmed 215 nominees for different political offices at the request of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Bola Tinubu, and in accordance with Section 147 (2-6) of the 1999 Constitution and other Acts of the National Assembly.”

In the House of Representatives, about 1,500 bills are being considered while only 10 have been passed and consolidated. Also, 679 motions have been moved. One of the laudable things both chambers of the National Assembly have done is the publication of their legislative agenda which is the barometer with which their performance can be measured. It is noteworthy that some of the outstanding bills passed include the Electricity Regulatory Bill, the Student Loans Bill, the Appropriation and Supplementary Appropriation Bills and the Reversal to the Old National Anthem Bill. In terms of representation, the National Assembly has stepped in to hold a summit on how to overcome the lingering security challenge, desirability of state police, and mediation to avert strike between Labour unions and the Federal Government. We have also seen footage and pictures of some of the committees’ oversight visits to Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

On the flip side, however, many Nigerians are dissatisfied with the flamboyant lifestyles of our lawmakers (be it at federal or sub-national levels). In a Channels TV online report of July 16, 2023, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project urged the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas, “to drop the scandalous plan to spend N40bn on 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials, and N70bn as ‘palliatives’ for new members.”

The padding of the 2024 Appropriation Bill by several thousands of projects running into trillions of naira is not also good optics for the National Assembly. Recall that in March, Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) said over N3. 7 trillion was not linked to any project in the 2024 budget. For his whistle-blowing act, he was sent on a three-month suspension and was just recently recalled. There was also controversy over about N100m each purportedly given to each of the lawmakers by Tinubu for the purchase of grains for their constituents during the last Christmas celebrations.

It is noteworthy that while the National Assembly has been enjoying financial autonomy since 2011, their state counterparts are yet to enjoy similar privileges despite two constitutional alterations in 2018 and 2023 to enable state Houses of Assembly and state judiciary to have financial autonomy. While some state governors have started to implement this law, others are still observing it as being in breach. The worst hit is the local governments that do not have autonomy. Councillors cannot meet to elect their Speaker and constitute the Assembly because the local government allocation is sent to a joint state local government account and it hardly gets to the councils. That is why I commend the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), for instituting a case at the Supreme Court to allow local government allocation to be sent directly to this third tier of government. I pray he succeeds as the Supreme Court has reserved judgment which should be delivered in due course.