On the verge of 9th Assembly disbandment; what has been achieved?
The 9th assembly is coming to a wrap in less than a month; the 10th assembly will be ushered in on June 11, 2023, and those interested in different key positions in the 10th assembly are already showing their political muscles to wrestle for those positions.
So can the 9th assembly after a 4-year run boldly beat their chests and pat their backs for a job well done? What can be said is a novel achievement or groundbreaking achievement of the 9th assembly for the four years they existed, starting from 2019 till 2023?
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Constitutionally, the parliamentarians are there for the primary purpose of law-making as has been provided in S.4(1&2);
4(1) “The legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in a National Assembly for the Federation, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
4(2) The National Assembly shall have the power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List set out in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Constitution”.
Aside from law-making, they consequently, expected to carry out the representative functions and the oversight duty.
The law-making function; Parliamentarians of the National Assembly have been empowered by the constitution to make and amend laws that bother on the exclusive and concurrent legislative list. They are expected to make laws and amend laws for the whole of Nigeria so as to correct the anomalies in the society.
We can score the 9th Assembly a “C” for the successful discharge of this function. They have had a fair run in making and amending laws since 2019 up till this year.
The 9th Assembly made and amended some significant laws we have today like the Electoral Act of 2022, CAMA, Police Act, etc. So we can say that the 9th Assembly made some improvements in discharging their law-making/law-amending functions.
The Representative function; They are as well expected to represent their constituency or the people who elected them to represent them in government at the federal level.
Since 1999, the parliamentarians have been scoring zero in their representation functions and there has been no improvement even up till this 9th assembly that is coming to a wrap. Most of the constituency offices around the country are always under lock and key. It is sad that whenever you want to see the lawmaker you elected to represent your constituency you will have to travel down to Abuja to see them in their office block at the National Assembly. You only get to see them at their constituencies once it’s election period and they come to canvas for votes and support. We can only wish for improvement in this upcoming 10th assembly in the discharge of the representative function.
Parliamentarians are as well expected to carry out oversight functions. Oversight refers to the actions taken to review and monitor public sector organizations and their policies, plans, programs, and projects, to ensure that they are achieving expected results; represent good value for money; and are in compliance with applicable policies, laws, regulations, and ethical standards. The 9th assembly has also had a fair run in the discharge of their oversight function. We saw them inviting and probing some public officials and we also saw them intervening in the labour union industrial actions. Whether they achieve any significant goal through this oversight action will be a matter for deliberation on another day but they should be applauded at least for folding up their sleeves and delving into the field when their oversight function is demanded of them.
We should point out that the fact the national and state house of assemblies are always shying away from exercising their core duties of checking the excesses of the executive especially when the president or the governor is in the same political party as the majority of the lawmakers is worrisome and have been contributing immensely for their catastrophic failures but we can only hope and wish for improvements and for a better 10th assembly.