The Legislature: Roles, misconceptions and experience in democratic Nigeria (1)

Operationalization of key concepts in the topic

A closer look at the topic under reference immediately reveals some key concepts or issues that require introductory definitions. They include the Legislature, its Roles, the Misconceptions and the actual Experience in advancing the frontiers of democracy in our country.

Legislature
The legislature is an assemblage of the representatives of the people elected under a legal framework to make laws for the good health of the society. It is also defined as “the institutional body  responsible for making laws for a nation and one through which the collective will of the people or part of it is articulated, expressed and implemented” (Okoosi-Simbine, 2010:1).

The legislature controls through legislation all economic, social and political activities of the nation. It also scrutinizes the policies of the Executive and provides the framework for the judiciary to operate.

In light of the foregoing, we cannot talk about democracy in any meaningful form or manner without the legislature.

Roles of the legislature
The National Assembly, which, in our case consists of the Senate and House of Representatives, is vested with the legislative powers of the Federation.

Section 4(1) under Part II of the Constitution states inter alia: “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”.

It goes further, in Section 4(2), to state as follows: “The National Assembly shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the federation with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List”.

For the purpose of explanation, the Exclusive Legislative List, which is contained in Part I of the Second Schedule to the Constitution deals with specific items which only the National Assembly has the sole prerogative to legislate upon, to the exclusion of the States and Local Governments. For example, the items, which are 68 in number, include defence, aviation, currency, customs and excise duties, citizenship, drugs and poisons, copyright, insurance, external affairs and meteorology.

On the other hand, there is the Concurrent Legislative List provided for under Part II of the Second Schedule to the Constitution. It includes 30 items. It is called Concurrent List because the Constitution allows both the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly to legislate on the items so specified.

The 30 items include the following amongst others: public funds at state and local government levels, antiquities and monuments, collection of taxes, stamp duties, voter registration in the local government councils, agriculture, education, cadastral and topographical surveys etc.

There is yet another category of powers described as residual list. This is the exclusive prerogative of the States. This is the implication of the provisions of Section 4 (7a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

A comparative study of the National and State Legislatures, in the discharge of the enormous powers bestowed upon them by the Constitution since the inception of the current democratic experiment, clearly shows that, whereas the National Assembly has been very assertive and proactive, most State Legislatures, regrettably, have allowed themselves to be completely emasculated and castrated by the State governors who, in several instances, have been very over-bearing in the way they conduct the affairs of their various States.

In simple terms, the legislature performs three basic Roles namely: lawmaking, representation and oversight. So, in the House of Representatives, we make laws, we carry out representative functions on behalf of the people who in our case, are demarcated in 360 federal constituencies, and we oversight the executive arm of government which include the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to ensure that government is held accountable to the people from where it derives its sovereignty.

Misconceptions
I must admit that the National Assembly has suffered from such public misconceptions since the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999. This is not without any justification if the truth must be told. However, to really understand and appreciate the legislature, we should accept the fact that the legislature is part and parcel of the larger Nigerian society.

To this extent, whatever affects the Nigerian society similarly affects the legislature. We are Nigerians and therefore subject to all the frailties and foibles of the larger society.

The National Assembly like any other Nigerian institution has had its high and low points. From the inception of this political dispensation in 1999 it has had its own share of scandals including certificate forgeries, contract scams and bribery sagas. Over time, and with some internal control measures put in place, the National Assembly, in the light of experience, has become a pre-eminent legislative institution for which Nigerians should be proud of.

You should be proud of the National Assembly not because scandals will not erupt once in a while, but the House of Representatives, as an institution, has mechanisms in place to deal with such matters as they arise. The disciplinary process contained in the Standing Orders of the House is robust enough to contain and deal with any scandals and the individuals involved.

The initial problems that enveloped the National Assembly in the beginning had given rise to misconceptions and misunderstanding by members of the public. The problem of misconception also derives from the crises of expectations on the part of the electorate. It is even more worrisome when it is realized that enlightened members of society, including those from the ivory tower, confuse the roles of the legislature with those of the executive.

Experience in consolidating democracy

The common dictionary meaning of the word ‘experience’ is the process, or an instance, of personally encountering, or undergoing something. It also means the knowledge gained from such a process.

When we talk about the experience of the legislature in the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria, we are actually talking about the knowledge we have gained in the discharge of our legislative functions over the last 13 years of democratic practice in the country.

There is, no doubt, that, in the past 13 years of uninterrupted democratic and legislative practice, the National Assembly has learnt some useful lessons that have continued to serve it in good stead.

This is evident in the sanity and serenity that have continued to reign in the National Assembly particularly since the inception of the 7th Assembly.

Notwithstanding the recent developments in which one of our colleagues was fingered in an alleged bribery scandal, the House has continued to insist on probity and accountability in the conduct of not only public policy but also in the management of its legislative business and the ethical conduct of members.

As we continue in our march to deepen and consolidate the gains of our democracy, we can only get better in the discharge of our mandate.

Constitutional Development
The country’s constitutional and political development suffered a major set-back with the overthrow of the civilian regime in January 1966 by the military which also suspended the 1963 Constitution. The chain of events that followed degenerated into a civil war which ended in 1970. The military continued to dominate the political space; ruling with decrees.

In 1977, a Constituent Assembly was constituted to consider a draft constitution proposed by the Chief Rotimi Williams-led Constitution Drafting Committee preparatory to the return to democratic rule. In 1979, the Presidential Constitution was promulgated and on October 1, 1979 democratic rule was restored. The 1979 Constitution introduced the American model of Presidential System of governance; a system we have retained till date.

Sadly, in December 1983, the military intervened again. It also put in place a Constituent Assembly which produced a draft constitution. The result was the 1989 Constitution under which elections were conducted to the National and State Houses of Assembly and Governorship in 1991. That process gave birth to the National Assembly of 1992-1993 under the superintendence of the military High Command.

On November 17, 1993 all democratic structures were dissolved by the military, the country was once again returned to full-blown military dictatorship.

However, in 1998, a new military administration appointed a Constitution Review Committee headed by a Supreme Court jurist, Justice Niki Tobi, to consult with Nigerians and submit a Draft Constitution. The result was the 1999 Constitution which brought the 4th Republic into being.
Since 1999 till date, the legislature in Nigeria has functioned uninterruptedly and discharged its constitutional duties as a separate arm of government.

The brief excursion into our historical past especially the various efforts at Constitutional developments is important, in my view, for us to properly situate the legislature in our political process and appreciate its role and the challenges it has continued to face over time.

Fourth Republic and the instability in the legislature:
The legislature has remained the most underdeveloped arm of the government. This is for obvious reasons.

For the greater part of our nationhood, the military has held the political centre-stage. And for the cumulative period of 29 years that the military controlled power in Nigeria, the legislature was the greatest casualty, as it was always the first democratic structure to be dissolved, and its powers appropriated and exercised by the military juntas.

This limited experience on the part of the legislature, compared to the other arms of government, may have accounted for the series of crises that the National Assembly has witnessed, particularly at the inception of the Fourth Republic.

The Enwerem-Okadigbo era:
The crisis of leadership, which attended the inauguration of the 4th National Assembly, was largely due to external interference. The political leadership that emerged in 1999 was coming from a military background where the idea of a legislature was totally unknown or greatly detested.

This mental construct or military hang-over was primarily responsible for the adversarial relationship that was witnessed between the Executive and the Legislature between 1999 and 2007.

To be continued.
Being extracts from a paper presented by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, at a public lecture organised by the Department of Political Science, University of Lagos.