Nigeria’s Incoming National Assembly May Also Fail

 By Tonnie Iredia

To say that the next set of Nigerian legislators may also fail implies that their predecessors had earlier failed. But considering that since 1999 when democracy was restored in the country, our lawmakers have become Nigeria’s wealthiest class, is it not contradictory to describe them as failures? But when the steady decline of Nigeria is considered against the backdrop of the failure to use lawmaking as a tool for the attainment of good governance, it becomes obvious that our successive lawmakers have consistently failed the people whose interest they were expected to represent.

On June 04, 2015, the 7th National Assembly(NASS) while marking the end of its tenure, passed 46 Bills in 10minutes. The Bills were first passed by the House of Representatives before they were forwarded to the Senate which simply skipped all the necessary law-making procedures and passed them, thereby technically entering the Guinness Book of records. 

As for relationship with the executive arm of government, successive Assemblies adopted different approaches. The 8th NASS especially the Senate, preferred the adversarial approach with a body language which suggested that the main goal was to serve as an effective check on the excesses of the executive.  To some analysts, the combative approach did not yield ample fruits. It was perhaps for this reason that the ruling APC ensured that leaders of the Senate who were their members were well disposed to collaborating with the executive.

Rather than seeing signs of a better nation as a result of the supposed collaboration, the most discernible observation was that the NASS was essentially a timid entity whose members were merely hiding under collaborative federalism to achieve self-enrichment. At the end of the day, both the combative and so-called cooperative legislators were all accused of budget padding which happens to be the greatest source of wealth for many legislators.

In truth, the priority of the average legislator has always hovered around constituency projects, unapproved allowances and exploitative oversight functions. Other things such as improved living standards of the people never matter. The legislator sees himself or herself as a special breed different from other citizens hence while better-trained professionals earn less than the wardrobe allowance of legislators, the type of law that our legislators relish is that which further tightens the nook around the necks of ordinary citizens while their own influence is not perturbed.

There is no better way of understanding the proposed law that seeks to detain medical doctors in poorly remunerated public services. The outgoing NASS argues that it wants to curb brain drain by legally disallowing doctors from leaving the country to search for better employment opportunities for at least the first 5 years after graduation. However simple logic would show that if doctors are allowed to earn salaries close to the take-home pay of legislators, the much-deprecated brain drain would virtually disappear.

Whereas our politicians would love that we all appreciate their willingness to participate in nation building, their huge remuneration clearly conveys the impression that the real interest is to attract material gains to themselves. The old saying ‘ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country’ does not seem to impress on our politicians that to serve society carries along with it some sacrifices.

Why can’t our legislators serve society ‘pro bono’ or earn same salaries as another set of nation builders – the National Youth Service Corps NYSC. In fact, although NYSC members are ‘bonafide’ graduates, many politicians seeking to serve society in luxury have doubtful academic attainments. It is indeed frustrating that political office-holders in Nigeria have become a de-schooling phenomenon; many of them are not only uneducated but parade fake documents making it seem that it is better not to go to school.

Interestingly, our legislators are not about to showcase any evidence that their arm of government is capable of living an independent existence. With less than a month to the inauguration of the 10th NASS, its proposed members rather than arranging to pick their own leaders are waiting for the return of the president-elect who is not one of their members to make the choice for them? 

Is this not an indication that the incoming NASS is not likely to be better than its rubber stamp predecessor? If the executive can choose its own team without waiting to be dictated to, why can’t legislators quietly pick men and women of integrity to lead them? Why does the NASS need to turn their own internal matter into a public event?

For the purposes of selecting leaders among themselves, some legislators have since the election spent huge funds on different organs of mass communication to reach out to far and wide just to campaign for offices within the NASS instead of just interacting among themselves. The way the campaigns have been handled gives an erroneous impression that the electorate has a mandatory role to play in the determination of who can be senate president or speaker of the House of Representatives or other leadership positions.

Why can’t legislators make their choices without over-heating the entire nation? Why is it necessary for anyone to spend huge sums to convince colleagues to allow him or her to hold an office? How do those spending such money intend to recover them if selected for the job other than by sharp practices? Put differently, what gains would accrue to the aspirants to cover their expenses?

The current campaigns for the selection of leaders for the legislature points directly to why politics has been sustained as the most lucrative venture in the country- a trend which encourages politicians to kill, maim and destroy others just to get into office. Societal institutions such as the media ought not to continue to encourage legislators to spend heavily on adverts to convince all Nigerians of their suitability for an office when we have no voting power on the subject. 

Certainly, the subject calls for personal interactions between office seekers and their fellow legislators. The most annoying aspect of the bogus public campaigns on internal matters is that the individual office-seeker does not dwell on his or her personal capacity or the strong traits of character which can convince anyone that they are fit to occupy the office in question. Instead the aspirants and their supporters are more interested in canvassing for the zoning of positions. Will the office be held by a zone or by individuals or are there zonal offices in the National Assembly? 

What has been said so far suggests that neither the NASS as a body nor its members have enough faith in their own capacity. This fear is aptly demonstrated by the unending lack of courage to invite the President to address the legislature when it is necessary for him to account for specific policies and their implementation.

How can such legislators exercise their power to impeach an offending president when despite the power given to them by the constitution to summon ANY person to answer relevant questions they show so much fear in calling out a president where it is expedient to do so? The few occasions they hinted at it melted away in the twinkle of an eye. 

It is therefore necessary to inform members of the incoming NASS that we have seen enough of feeble legislators.

Any sharp analyst must have anticipated the failure of the 2023 elections in the area of electronic transmission of results. The APC never wanted it as 50 of their senators voted against it but merely allowed it to go to avert public anger. There is no way the transmission of results which if followed can stop rigging would not have had problems during implementation. 

We can only appeal to the incoming legislators to make a difference. While they should not stand in the way of the executive to attain good governance for Nigeria, they should also not toe the hapless line of supporting controversial policies such as incessant loans that can complicate the nation’s fragile economic health. If they fail, it will not be a great surprise because nothing has really changed.

*Dr. Iredia is a veteran journalist and commentator on public issues