Politics
National Assembly And Sustainable Democracy
Conventionally, the business of modern government is conducted around three arms, namely the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. This division is inspired by the time honoured doctrine of Separation of Powers, first articulated by the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle but made popular by the French political thinker, Baron de Monlesquieu. Writing as early as 384-322 B.C, Aristotle remarked that:
There are three elements in each constitution in respect of which every serious law giver must look for what is advantageous to it. The three are, first, the deliberative, which discusses everything of common importance; second, the officials and third, the judicial element.
This idea was what was later elaborated by Montesquieu into what we generally refer to as the doctrine of separation of powers. Writing in 1748 in De L’Epirit des Loise, Montesqueu posited that: When the legislative and Executive powers are united in the same person or in the same body of magistrates, there is no liberty. There is no liberty, if the judicial powers is not separated from the legislative and executive powers. Were it joined with the legislative powers, the life and liberty of the subjects would be. exposed to arbitrary control, for the judge would be the legislator. Were it joined with the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression. There would be an end of everything were the same man or the same body to exercise these three powers.
In its basic formulation, the doctrine of separation of powers demands that the three primary functions of government namely: law making, implementation and adjudicating or interpreting -the law be entrusted into the hands of three of an over concentration of governmental powers in the hands of a few.
In line with the necessity for separation of powers, sections 4,5 and 6 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) 1999 clearly stipulate the powers of the three organs of government. In what follows, we reflect on the powers of the legislature.
The legislature in Nigeria is essentially bicameral and is variously referred to as the National Assembly or Parliament. Bicameralism suggests that the National Assembly is made up of two legislative chambers an upper chamber known as the Senate and a lower chamber known as the House of Representatives. It has a total membership of 469,360 from the lower chamber and 109 from the upper chamber.
The powers of the National Assembly are stipulated in Section 4 (1-(9) of the constitution. Section 4 (2) for instance states that ‘the National Assembly shall have powers to make laws for the people, order and good government of the federation or any part thereof with respect to any matter’. Mamora (2009) categorizes the powers of the legislature into three, namely ‘expressed’, ‘implied’ and ‘assumed’ powers. Expressed powers refer to those powers of the legislature that are clearly spell out in the constitution such as lawmaking, authorisation of expenditure of public funds, creation of states etc. Implied powers refer to those powers which may not be expressly stated in the constitution but which by extension of the constitution; the legislature may, by necessary implication legislate on. These include power of arrest (section 89), power to create new ministries etc. Finally, assumed powers may be exercised by the legislature in response to a constitutional or administrative lacuna. For instance, following the failure of the, late president Yar’ Adua to duly notify the National Assembly of his incapacity arising from ill-health, the National Assembly on the basis of the interview he granted the BBC invoked the doctrine of necessity and passed a resolution’ authorising the then Vice President to assume the position of Acting President.
How well the National Assembly has played the aforementioned roles remain a subject of active popular contestation. For some, the legislature is at best a drain on national resources: given the amount of money it costs the nation to maintain the lawmakers. For instance a popular text message that was circulated in the midst of the brouhuha over the pay of legislators queried:
do you know that it costs taxpayers 290m naira yearly to maintain each member of our National Assembly in a country where nothing works & where 80% of population earn below 300 Naira? A working day earning of a senator is more than a yearly income of a doctor; It’s more than the salary of 42 Army generals or 48 professors or 70 commissioners of police or more than twice the pay of the US president or 9 times the salary of US congressmen …
Others believe that though our democracy is expensive. It is better than the pain that military rule represented. The issue for me is not between democracy and dictatorship. It is about how to sensibly remunerate our lawmakers in a manner that does not amount to a derivation of resources that could be mobililsed for national development. It becomes particularly worrisome against the realisation that in terms of productivity, measured in terms of number of bills passed into laws. The Nigeria’s National Assembly lags behind the American congress, even as its members earn several times over what their American counterparts earn.
The controversy is one which is not about to be resolved and it may not be fruitful to detain ourselves on this any further. Given the specific purview of this presentation, it may be fruitful for us to focus our attention on the role of the National Assembly in sustainable democracy.
Aaron is a lecturer in Uniport
Kikpoye K. Aaron
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed, through a second reading, a bill seeking to retain immunity for the Office of the President and remove immunity from the Vice President, the Governors and the Deputy Governors.
The bill was one of the 42 considered and passed through the second reading stage during plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Mr Benjamin Kalu, in Abuja.
Sponsored by Hon. Solomon Bob (Rivers PDP), the bill is seeking the amendment of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution to guard against abuse of office and to ensure transparency in governance.
The long title of the proposed legislation read: “A Bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to qualify the immunity conferred on the President, remove the immunity conferred on the Vice President, the Governors and their deputies, in order to curb corruption, eradicate impunity and enhance accountability in public office and for related matters.”
Key amendments include changes to Section 308 of the Constitution, which currently grants immunity to the president, vice president, governors, and deputy governors while in office.
The proposed bill will amend subsection 3 to ensure that immunity only applies to the President and the vice president when acting as President under Section 145 of the Constitution.
Additionally, a new subsection 4 will be introduced to make the immunity clause inapplicable if the office holder is acting in an unofficial capacity, engaging in actions beyond the powers of the office, or involved in criminal conduct.
“The bill seeks to foster transparency and strengthen the fight against corruption by making public officials more accountable for their actions, both in and out of office.”
“Section 308 of the principal Act is amended by:(a) substituting a new subsection (3) as follows: “(3) This section applies to a person holding the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Vice President only when acting as President, in line with Section 145 of this Constitution.
Creating sub section (4) thereto as follows:”(4) The foregoing provisions of this section shall be inapplicable where the person to whom this section applies is acting in an unofficial capacity or where the conduct of the person is beyond the powers of his office or the conduct is criminal in nature.
“This Bill may be cited as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) Act 2024.
The bill is currently awaiting further debate and consideration by the National Assembly.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has written to notify Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senator representing Kogi Central, about the petition by constituents seeking her recall from the national assembly.
INEC said it has also received the contact details of the petitioners.
“Pursuant to section 69 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, I write to notify you of the receipt of a petition from representatives of registered voters in your constituency seeking your recall from the senate.
“The notification is in line with the provisions of clause 2 (a) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.
“This letter is also copied to the presiding officer of the senate and simultaneously published on the commission’s website. Thank you”, the letter read.
The letter was signed by Ruth Oriaran Anthony, secretary to the commission.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Wednesday, INEC said it has now received the updated contact details from representatives of petitioners seeking to recall the senator.
In the statement, Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education, said a letter notifying the senator of the petition has been delivered to her official address, copied to the senate presiding officer, and published on the commission’s website.
“The next step is to scrutinise the list of signatories submitted by the petitioners to ascertain that the petition is signed by more than one half (over 50%) of the registered voters in the constituency. This will be done in the coming days.
“The outcome, which will be made public, shall determine the next step to be taken by the Commission. We once again reassure Nigerians that the process will be open and transparent”, Mr Olumekun said.
Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan had recently accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexually harassing her.
The allegation came in the wake of seating arrangement related altercation between Senator. Akpabio and the Kogi Central senator at the red chamber
She was subsequently suspended from the senate for six months for “gross misconduct” over the incident.
The constituents behind the recall move also accused her of “gross misconduct, abuse of office, and deceitful behaviour”.
The senator has denied wrongdoing and called the recall effort a “coordinated suppression” of her voice.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the second reading of a bill to upgrade the Lagos State 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to full-fledged Local Government Areas (LGAs ).
The bill, was sponsored by James Faleke, Babajimi Benson, Enitan Badru, and 19 other lawmakers.
The bill is titled “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to Accommodate the Thirty-Seven (37) Development Area Councils of Lagos State as Full-Fledged Local Government Areas, Increasing the Total Number of Local Government Areas in the Federation to Eight Hundred and Eleven (811), and for Related Matters (HB. 1498),”
Once fully enacted, Nigeria’s total number of LGAs will rise from 774 to 811, with Lagos overtaking Kano and Katsina, which currently have 44 and 34 LGAs, respectively.
Proponents of the bill argue that granting full LGA status to the LCDAs would bring governance closer to the people. The 37 LCDAs were created by President Bola Tinubu in 2003 when he was governor of Lagos State.
However, it’s worth noting that the Lagos State House of Assembly has been working on a bill to replace the 37 LCDAs with newly designated administrative areas.