On its key functions of appropriation, sound legislation and checking the excesses of the executive and judiciary, the legislature has fallen flat on its tummy. There could still be room for improvement. But so far, the National Assembly under Godwill Akpabio, does not elicit cheers.
Nigerians have with good reasons been focusing their gaze on President Bola Tinubu and the executive arm of government since May 29, 2023. It is not for nothing. The man, Tinubu came to office, preceded by hype and myths that have so far, turned out unfounded. In fact, a hoax!
Tinubu’s foot soldiers packaged and marketed him as a clinical headhunter with the talisman to turn the fortunes of the country around. But one year after, Nigerians are yet to see actions from the President. There have not been convincing flickers of hope in his Hope Renewed election mantra. Rather, the people have been fed with cocktail of propaganda and hastily contrived policies and programmes that do not have direct bearing on their lives. A colleague was right in dismissing the period as a better forgotten one year of anguish.
Tinubu deserves whatever knocks he gets for failing those that had looked up to him. His thoughtless pronouncement on the day of inauguration ending subsidy on petroleum products and subsequently, merging the foreign exchange market, without any fallback, is at the heart of the trauma Nigerians are going through. Such policy decisions are not the types to be taken for the fun of it. But that was Tinubu, the one attributed with magic wand. You can therefore understand why the citizens are aghast at the president. He has so far failed them. And they are right to be angry.
But the critical question, is where is the legislature, the National Assembly in all these? A major blow that the years of military rule dealt on the psyche of Nigerians, is the tendency to focus more on the executive, with lesser attention to the legislature and the judiciary.
The judiciary is even reckoned with more than the legislature. And that is where the missing gap lies. An elected legislature is the arm of government that defines a government as democratic. A lot lies on that arm of the government to keep the ship of state stable at all times.
Under the military or monarchy, the executive exists, ditto, the judiciary, under whatever guise. But a system can only be said to be practicing democracy when its legislature is present and alive to its responsibilities. That is why the legislators are seen as true representatives of the people. Any other contraption is an autocracy or outright dictatorship.
It is not for nothing that Section 47 of the Constitution prescribes that “there shall be a National Assembly for the Federation which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives”. The National Assembly is constitutionally vested with several functions, prominent among which are lawmaking, representation, appropriation, among others.
Its powers also include ratifying treaties, investigating the executive branch, impeaching and removing from office members of the executive and judiciary, and redressing constituents’ grievances. At the states are Houses of Assembly.
The weight of responsibilities on the legislature, is thus, much. But the problem is that the legislature in Nigeria does not understand its role, nor the power it commands in putting the country on a sound footing. Consequently, the executive has exploited the naivete or lethargy of the lawmakers and has reduced the lawmaking institutions to mere appendages of the presidency or governors’ offices. From the inception of the current dispensation, the executive arm has not hidden its disdain on the legislature, going as far as selecting its principal officers.
Days to the inauguration of the present National Assembly, Tinubu had met some senators and members of the House of Representatives-elect across all parties, in Abuja where he tasked them to put the nation first and downplay party politics in the discharge of their duties. He also called on the lawmakers to work together to choose good leaders in the 10th National Assembly.
He did not voice support for any of the candidates vying for the senate or House of Representatives leadership at the meeting. But it was known that Tinubu was rooting for Godswill Akpabio, former Akwa Ibom state governor, for senate presidency and Tajudeen Abbas, as Speaker of the House. At the inauguration of the Assembly on June 13, 2023, it was not surprising that the two candidates emerged the winners.