The Ninth National Assembly took off in earnest last week with the election Dr. Ahmed Lawan as Senate President and Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila as House Speaker. Mr. Ovie Omo-Agege was elected Deputy Senate President while Alhaji Ahmad Idris Wase emerged unopposed as Deputy Speaker. The remaining Assembly leaders are expected to emerge soon.
The importance of the National Assembly to the success of democracy in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. The Constitution exclusively vests it with all the legislative powers of the federation. These include the power to make laws, including the power to make appropriation, oversight power over all federal ministries and agencies, and also the power by the Senate to approve key appointments, including those of ministers and other key functionaries.
The Assembly leaders that just emerged did so after they run elaborate campaigns, touring different parts of the country, meeting their colleagues and other interest groups, as well as holding press conferences and unfolding their legislative agenda. In that respect, they are more prepared to assume this role than their predecessors in office had been. Nigerians therefore expect more from them.
Their wealth of experience also adds to the weight of expectation. Senate President Lawan has been a member of the National Assembly since 1999, first as a member of the House of Representatives and later as a senator. He was also the Senate Leader in the 8th Assembly. Speaker Gbajabiamila is also a highly experienced legislator who vied to become the speaker four years ago. Nigerians generally frowned at the poor working relationship between the President and leaders of the 8th National Assembly. It had many effects on governance, including delayed budget passage and the president’s vetoing of too many bills passed by the assembly. This time around, Lawan, Gbajabiamila and their deputies were all known to be supported by President Buhari and the APC leadership. In fact, the president openly endorsed and campaigned for them to emerge. The public therefore expects to see a harmonious working relationship and the speeding up of government business.
This is not to say that Nigerians expect the new leaders to play a rubber stamp role in their relationship with the President. Far from it, we expect the assembly under their leadership to rise to the occasion, speed up its work, refine its act, check its own excesses, do away with abuses and then intensify its searchlight on the work of all executive agencies. Oversight function is very important and Nigerians know that there is a lot of sleaze and misdeed waiting to be uncovered through oversight of executive agencies. Trouble is, legislators are often accused of engaging in self-serving corrupt deals instead of scrupulous oversight duty. We expect Lawan and Gbajabiamila to bring an end to this habit once and for all.
Their take-off in their new roles has also been promising. For example, the new leadership has already demonstrated the capacity for asserting the independence of the legislature. The new leaders have directed MDAs to comply with new budget related procedures. A new time frame of three months between October and December of each year has been adopted for the national budget to be presented and passed to the President for assent. Other directives recently issued include for MDAs to defend their budgets within a stipulated period. If the new leaders manage to deliver on the October-December budget passage timeline, that will be a major contribution indeed. Prompt passing of the budget, and its prompt implementation, should help to improve upon the economy’s current snail-slow growth rate.
Meanwhile, Lawan and Gbajabiamila must look inward and clean up the act of the National Assembly bureaucracy. Right now, it is in a state of crisis. The strike action by National Assembly staff last year nearly marred President Buhari’s presentation of the 2019 budget estimates. Protests by legislative aides and an endless stream of petitions all require the attention of the new leaders because it could impair the assembly’s main duties.
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