- David-West: Some lawmakers don’t even know what is in the Constitution
- Saraki: We are better than previous Assemblies
A thriving democracy requires a robust and vibrant legislature that is committed to the constitutional role of making laws for good governance, peace and welfare of the people. The legislature is also expected to serve as a check on the executive arm of government.
Assessing how in the last three years, the National Assembly has performed the above role has received mixed reactions from Nigerians. Some people have scored it high in view of the general political atmosphere in the country; while others believe it has not justified the fat salaries paid to the members.
On issues of quality and impact of legislations, relevance and depth of resolutions as well as motives and gains of oversight functions, many Nigerians believe that the eighth National Assembly has done its best. Some other Nigerians, however, believe that the parliament has not met the expectations of the people in the area of ensuring effective governance through key amendments in the 1999 Constitution and securing the expected better life for the generality if the citizens.
The perception of Nigerians on the achievements in the last three years may also not be unconnected with controversies associated with the emergence of the leadership of the two chambers in 2015.
For the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who doubles as the Chairman of the National Assembly, the current Senate is one borne out of the many politics and controversies associated with the new administration put in place by a political party largely constituted by what many called “a group of strange bed fellows.”
However, the fact that the leadership was able turn the rancorous atmosphere into that of peaceful coexistence among senators and members of the House within the first legislative year, went a long way in laying a good foundation for the National Assembly to face its core mandate.
The eight National Assembly prides itself mainly on the number of legislations it has passed in the last three years, but many Nigerians assessed it differently. The office of the Senate President said 35 months after its inauguration, the eighth Senate has passed a total of 205 bills, including Senate bills, concurrent bills and constitution amendment bills. Interestingly, the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, took to his twitter handle to congratulate his colleagues for a job well done.
He disclosed that from its inauguration on June 9, 2015, the eighth Senate has surpassed the seventh, sixth and Fifth Senate in the number of bills passed. While the seventh Senate passed only 128 bills in four years, the sixth passed 82, and the fifth, 129. Saraki expressed optimism that in the few remaining months, the Senate would pass more bills that will affect the lives of Nigerians. “We still have some months to go, yet, we have reached this milestone.”
Saraki said “With the support from our international development partners and the organised private sector, we commissioned an expert report which identified 54 extant laws that must be reviewed and brought in line with international best practices in order to open up our economy for private investments and businesses.
“This legislative intervention yielded major economic reform bills and seven business environment bills. Prominent among those passed include the Electronic Transaction Bill 2015; Debt Recovery and Insolvency-bill 2015 and the Railway Bill. All these bills represent a watershed in economic and business legislations in our country. “The Electronic Transaction Bill 2015 for example, will be the first legal framework in the country that provides the legal foundation for electronic signatures and guarantees predictability in contracts made electronically. This bill will offer full protections to contracts entered into via emails, and transactions conducted with online shops, electronic commerce and services platforms, which are currently not provided for in our laws.
“Another obvious benefit of this bill is that it will reduce the cost of doing business by eliminating transportation and other logistic cost. By passing this bill, the Senate has given legitimacy and local application to the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 23rd November 2005.”
Speaking on the Railway Reform Bill considered as being capable of bringing revolution to Nigeria’s rail sector and also serve as a catalyst for economic advancement, Saraki said passing the bill would have a huge impact on the nation’s economy. The passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, which seeks to reform the country’s oil and gas industry that has been bogged down by decades of a lack of transparency and corruption is also seen by the Senate as one that gave it goods image.
Another strategic bill passed within the last three years is the Companies and Allied Matters Act, which is the biggest business reform bill in Nigeria. The bill, according to the Senate, heralds a new dawn for Small and Medium Enterprises development in Nigeria, as the country will now join a select group of countries with attractive investment environments.
Speaking on the passage of the bill at plenary, Saraki stated that it was a significant milestone in the Eighth Senate’s Legislative Agenda. “With the passage of CAMA, which is by far the biggest and one of the most far-reaching legislations ever passed in any legislature in our country, we have now put in place a regulatory framework to promote the ease of doing business and reduce regulatory hurdle.”
At the lower legislative chambers headed by Yakubu Dogara, bills passed include the agriculture credit scheme bill and the Chartered Institute for Soil Science bill which were passed into law are part of a critical segment of legislative interventions. According to Dogara, all the bills sent to the House of Representatives have passed through first reading. “We have designed to boost the current policy on agriculture as a major plank of the diversification policy of government. In the coming months we are determined to continue to focus our legislative energy at high impact legislation across the critical sectors of our economy.”
Despite its excellent self-assessment, Nigerians believe that the National Assembly has recorded some negative trends that have acted as major drawbacks for democracy. Despite majority of Nigerians yearning for restructuring of the country, the National Assembly for reasons best known to it has chosen to go against the wish of the people they claim to represent even though the cry for the redefinition of the structure of government is becoming more strident by the day.
Another embarrassing setback for democracy in the National Assembly is the invasion of Senate chamber on April 18, 2018 by some thugs leading to the stealing of the mace. In his assessment of the National Assembly in the last three years, human rights lawyer and former National Secretary of the Labour Party, Mr Kayode Ajulo ,the National Assembly is a failure.
“They are a great disappointment; they have turned the whole thing upside down. The present National Assembly is the worst to have existed in the history of Nigeria. The candour is not there, they lack everything. It is more of a nightmare” Ajulo said. Also speaking, former Petroleum Minister, Professor Tam David West, said, “They have not done more than what is expected of them. Most of them have not even read the constitution. It is
that bad.”
However, another human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, believes differently. He said the eighth Assembly has obviously performed better than the executive arm of government. According to him, “They have done their best in resisting the obvious executive overbearing and autocracy, because the APC party never accepted the NASS leadership.
“Its vocal members have been humiliated, terrorised, excoriated, and sidelined. But it has managed to hold on to its independence, passing many bills, motions and resolutions which the executive hardly implemented,” Ozekhome observed.
