July 03, (THEWILL) – The National Assembly in Nigeria, in line with bi-cameral legislature provided for by the 1999 Constitution, consists of the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives.
The two chambers were inaugurated on June 11, 2019 and the Ninth National Assembly marked its three years anniversary on June 11, 2022.
Led by the Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the Ninth Assembly has been credited with stable maturity because, unlike the previous assembly, it brought stability to the polity in the way that it has maintained cordial relationship with the Executive arm of government.
The present assembly, going by the profiles of its members, is arguably filled with the best trained and most highly skilled Nigerians in the history of the NASS. Both Lawan and Gbajabiamila, without any doubt, have acquired the necessary experience in legislative duties, having stayed for more than two terms in the Upper and Lower Chambers, respectively, before being saddled with the responsibility of leading the ninth assembly.
On resumption of duties after inauguration, Lawan and the entire leadership of the Ninth National Assembly have assumed that constructive engagements with the executive arm of government, particularly, the presidency, is the required approach for a results-oriented relationship.
Perhaps talking about the rancorous relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly in the 8th National Assembly, Lawan in his inaugural speech three years ago emphasised the need for a shift in the working relationship between the legislature and the executive arm of government.
In the speech titled, A Senate that works for Nigerians, Lawan said: “We are going to work collaboratively with the executive arm of government to strengthen our planning and budget linkage that ensures effective service delivery and fulfilment of essential government obligations to the citizens, while taking care of the perennial delays in our annual appropriation bill passage and implementation.
“Within us as a Senate, our leadership will commit to partnership rather than partisanship and between us and the executive arm of government, we will choose unity of purpose over conflict and discord, while also working towards further strengthening and guaranteeing our independence and that of the judiciary…”.
The past three years saw Nigerians mounting pressure on the National Assembly to pass critical legislation to improve the country’s democracy.
The question we need to ask now is how has the parliament reacted to this, how has the parliament fared or put differently, how has the Ninth National Assembly fared in carrying out its legislative duties?
Nigerians are in unison that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which was signed into law early this year by President Muhammadu Buhari was one of the key legislative items passed with the intention to entrench democracy by reforming the electoral process.
Although the resort to electronic voting and the resignation of political appointees before contesting election threatened to derail the entire process, the clause of electronic transmission of results was eventually passed. However Section 84 sub section 12, which states that, “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election without resignation” became a matter of litigation in court.
This was also put to rest with the Supreme Court’s recent pronouncement which upheld the decision of the National Assembly.
The later amendment to section 84 Sub Section 8 to allow statutory delegates to vote in party primaries is also yet to be assented to by the President.
Many Nigerians have yearned for the passing of this critical bill, believing it can sanitise our electoral system and stem irregularities like reform to avoid underage voting, violence, cash for voting among others. So the passage is definitely a positive one for the Ninth National Assembly.
Speaking on this development, the Executive Director of NESSACTION, Eniola Cole, said, “I think the main contribution that the National Assembly has made in the last three years is in passing the New Electoral Act and that has enabled us to do much more than we can do as civil society organisations than in the past.
Cole also said that civil society organisations also want the lawmakers to strengthen the judiciary. “The judiciary is one area that needs more strengthening, especially in terms of the electoral process and how things get distorted along the way,” she said.
Another landmark legislation to which the Ninth National Assembly gets commended is the Petroleum Industry Bill, which it passed. This had defied efforts in that direction for the past 14 years.
While it may be seen that applause may be given for these landmark bills, some Nigerians still question the role of the National Assembly in improving the country’s democracy.
This concern will be largely due to the constitution amendments bill passed by the parliament, which excluded the improvement of participation of women in politics and government.
Despite weeks of protest at the gate of the National Assembly, which compelled the lawmakers to access the complex through the back gate, nothing changed.
Although the House of Representatives later back-tracked and reconsidered four of the five gender bills, this amounts to nullity as they were not passed in the Senate.
A look at the contribution of the Ninth National Assembly to the fight against corruption through its oversight functions has been brought to question.
Speaking on this, the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, said, “In some of the places that members of the National Assembly are supposed to go and carry out oversight functions a lot of concerns are brought up.
“You cannot go to the oversight of an agency and it is that agency that will give you transport, that will give you what they called sitting allowances and so on. You have already compromised the essence of such oversight. The Assembly has a huge amount of resources at their disposal, why are they relying on the agencies for these allowances.”
While speaking with THEWILL, Constitutional Lawyer, Dr Olukayode Ajulo, said, “I did some consultancy as well as represented the National Assembly in some constitutional cases. Therefore, I cannot be seen to give an objective assessment of the Ninth National Assembly.
“However I say this as a fact that the leadership of the Assembly places a premium in doing whatsoever is done in accordance with the law. This has ensured that the National Assembly is properly guided at all times, hence the continued affirmation of every step that it has taken.”
With less than a year to the end of the tenure of the Assembly and while the politics gets thicker, it is the hope of Nigerians that the legislature will grow the country’s democracy to a proper oversight and ensure accountability.
The Ninth National Assembly under the leadership of Lawan was, in collaboration with the executive arm of government, able to revert the yearly budget cycle to January – December as against June – May yearly cycle in the past.
It has also successfully amended and passed the Deep Off-Shore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act Cap D3LFN 2004 (Amendment Bill 2009), which was specifically geared towards increasing collectable revenues from the proceeds of crude oil sales.
There are also many other development focused legislations aimed at boosting the national economy, such as the Public Procurement 2007 (amendment) bill 2019 , Companies and Allied Matters Act, Cap C20 LFN 2004 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2019 etc, which were passed and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Senate under Lawan’s leadership in the last three years and by extension, that of the National Assembly, has projected the legislative arm of government in Nigeria as the stabilising factor required in governance at the centre and it has been the face of a working democracy as against the rancorous and antagonistic one which characterised our polity in the recent past.
Ahmad Lawan, in a speech delivered during the special session last year, said a total of 742 bills were introduced by the Ninth Senate in the last two years.
According to him, out of the total number of bills introduced during the two sessions of the Assembly, 58 have been passed, while 355 bills have gone through first reading.
The Senate President further disclosed that 175 bills have also gone through second reading and have been referred to the relevant committee for further legislative business; with 11 bills referred by the House of Representatives for concurrence all passed.
According to him, “the bills cut across all the sectors and touch most areas of needs in the lives of our citizens.”
Lawan recalled that the Ninth National Assembly in its bid to rescue the nation’s economy, embarked on the restoration of Nigeria’s budget cycle to the January to December timeline.
The move, according to him, brought about positive outcomes which made the country’s fiscal plans more predictable and boosted investors’ confidence.
He added that the passage of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act 2004 (Amendment Bill, 2009) was intended to increase Nigeria’s share of revenue from crude oil.
“Other laws that we passed that are having significant impacts on the economy include the Finance Bill 2019 (Nigeria Tax and Fiscal Law) (SB.140), which amended seven existing tax laws.
“In our Legislative Agenda, we had also promised to create a legal environment conducive for ease of doing business.
“We kept this promise by passing the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Cap C20 LFN 2004 (Repeal and Reenactment) Bill 2019 (SB.270),”Lawan said.
The Senate President assured that the upper chamber would, finally this month (June), pass the Petroleum Industry Bill after about 20 years of failed attempts.”
Many Nigerians believe that while the assembly may be given a pass mark in the law-making duty, it has failed in its performance of oversight function.
To many Nigerians, the actions of the Ninth National Assembly within the last three years, with regard to express approval of executive requests, more or less shows that it is a ‘rubber stamp’ to the executive arm of government.
Nigerians who belong to this school of thought came to the fore last year, during the one-day group focused discussions on citizens’ expectations from the Ninth National Assembly held at the temporary site of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies ( NILDS) in Abuja.
Speaking at the occasion, the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Abuja Chapter, Dr Kassim Umar, cautioned the leadership of the National Assembly on ‘the same page relationship’ it is running with the executive arm of government, since the three arms of government in a presidential democracy are meant to serve as check on one another.
“Harmonious working relationship among the three arms of government and in particular, between the Legislature and the Executive in a presidential democracy like Nigeria is a welcome development, but taking it to the realm of subservience by being on the same page with the executive on all issues is dangerous for good governance.
“In the light of this, Nigerians will want the Ninth National Assembly to be more assertive, thorough and resolute in exercising its constitutional duties as regards approval of proposals from the executive arm of government so as not to be seen as a rubber stamp and invariably creating a perception problem for itself.
“Effective oversight functions on the two other arms of government by the National Assembly is highly expected from them by Nigerians, which will go a long way in taking off whatever toga of rubber stamp many critics have put on them, ” he said.
Despite this perception by many Nigerians, the Ninth National Assembly strongly believes that a harmonious working relationship with the executive and the attendant ‘rubber stamp’ appellation is far better than frictional ones of the past, which yielded Nigerians and Nigeria nothing in terms of good governance.
Reacting to the rubber-stamp perception, Gbajabiamila said, “People, critics and members of other parties have said the Ninth Assembly is a rubber stamp of the executive. They may have told you that, too. You know what? It is better to be a rubber stamp and bring progress, than fight the executive without progress because when two elephants fight, the grass suffers.
“The fact is that the National Assembly is not a rubber stamp. This is a National Assembly that represents the interests of the people. The people of Surulere did not elect me to fight the executive, but to engage and collaborate with stakeholders to bring the dividends of democracy.
“This is a new dispensation. There will be checks and balances. There will be separation of powers. We will agree with the executive if we have to, and we will disagree if we have to. Our watchword is to protect the interests of the Nigerian people. That is the oath that my colleagues and I swore to.”
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had recently declared that the path chosen by the Ninth National Assembly to work in harmony with the Executive arm of government has benefitted Nigeria and Nigerians in so many ways through series of bills passed and assented to by the President and very important ones being worked upon with the hope and assurances of being assented to by the President, when transmitted to him for that purpose.
Viewed from different angles, one will agree that the Ninth National Assembly’s cordial relationship with the executive in the last three years has brought more progress and stability to the polity.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
