…Senate passed 162 Bills, 104 assented to by Buhari
…Pushed consistency in Budget cycle, increased implementation
… Failed to address over centralisation of security architecture
… Many unfinished probes, more unanswered questions
The 9th Senate in collaboration with the House of Representatives ran its full course and in the process made some remarkable legislations but missed some too. TAIYE ODEWALE and JOSHUA EGBODO examines how the 9th National Assembly fared.
Lawmaking is the most fundamental function of the legislature. This was seriously attended to by the 9th National Assembly from June 2019 to June 2023; for good governance in Nigeria.
Strength
One of such far reaching legislations made by the 9th National Assembly, was the Petroleum Industry Act, 2022 which gave room for total liberalisation of the oil sector with attendant removal of fuel subsidy that almost collapse the nation’s economy gulping about N5 trillion on yearly basis.
Other remarkable legislations made by the 9th Senate, concurred with by the House of Representatives and assented to by former President Muhammadu Buhari, were chronicled by President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, last month in his speech at induction held for federal lawmakers of the 10th National Assembly.
Speaking in his capacity as President of the 9th Senate, he said: “As of July 2022, a total of 874 bills were introduced in the Senate, out of which 162 were passed. Remarkably, 104 Bills of the 9th Senate have been assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, making this significantly higher than those of previous assemblies, which recorded 31 for the 4th Assembly, 98 for the 5th Assembly, 52 for the 6th Assembly, 60 for the 7th Assembly, and 74 for the 8th Assembly.
“In the area of appropriation, the 9th Assembly has successfully pushed for a return to the January-December budget cycle. This has introduced a new consistency in the Budget cycle and increased Budget implementation, which has enhanced the predictability of macroeconomic policies.
“This Assembly has passed landmark legislations targeted at various sectors with the potential to enhance the productivity of our economy and national life by encouraging investment, facilitating the ease of doing business, boosting investors’ confidence, and providing a legal and regulatory framework to safeguard the rule of law.
“The Finance Bills 2020 has accompanied the Appropriation Bills since 2020. This is an innovation because the appropriation Bill provides the planned expenditure outlay. At the same time, the finance Bills provide a legislative framework for how the government intends to raise additional revenue within the fiscal year to help fund the budget.
“While the 2020 Finance Act successfully amended 17 critical aspects of the extant laws, including seven existing tax laws, the 2023 Finance Act amends 11 legislations, including the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA); Customs, Excise, Tariff, etc. (Consolidation) Act (CETA); Federation Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) (Establishment) Act; Personal Income Tax Act (PITA); Petroleum Profits Tax Act (PPTA); Stamp Duties Act (SDA); Value Added Tax (VAT) Act; Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences (CPORO) Act; Public Procurement Act (PPA); and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment) (TETFund) Act.
“The Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 repealed and re-enacted the CAMA legislation of 1990. The Act introduces measures to ensure efficiency in registering corporate vehicles, reduce the compliance burden of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), enhance transparency and stakeholders’ engagement in corporate vehicles, and promote a friendlier business climate.
“Furthermore, the Startup Act 2022, which we passed and was assented to by the President, established the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship and provides an enabling regulatory environment for technology-enabled start-ups in Nigeria.
“In addition, the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract (Amendment) Act 2019 gives effect to fiscal incentives given to oil and gas companies operating in the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin areas under production sharing contracts between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or other companies holding oil prospecting licenses (OPL) or oil mining leases (OML) and various petroleum exploration and production companies.
“Arguably, one of the notable achievements of the 9th Senate is passing the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which was first introduced in the 6th Assembly (2007-2011) but failed to scale through. The Act seeks to provide legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry that would promote optimal utilisation of the country’s abundant oil and gas resources as well as enhance social and economic development and promote a conducive investment climate in the industry and foster the development of host communities.
“To help Nigeria transition from a mono-economy, from overly dependent on crude oil and providing more sources of employment for our youth, the 9th Assembly introduced and passed several bills such as the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (Amendment) Act, 2022, the National Fertilizer Quality (Control) Act, 2019, Plant Variety Protection Act, 2021, Federal College of Agriculture, Kirikasamma (Establishment) Act, 2021, Raw Materials Research and Development Council Act, 2022, and the Animal Diseases (Control) Act, 2022 and School of Mines and Geological Studies (Establishment) Bill, 2022.
“The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 (the Act. 2022) provides a legal and institutional framework for preventing money laundering in Nigeria. The Act also provides statutory backing for establishing the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022 provides a robust legal and institutional framework for the recovery and management of the proceeds of crime, a non-conviction-based procedure for the recovery of proceeds of crime, strengthens criminal confiscation procedure, and collaboration among the relevant organisations in tracing properties reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.
“The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2022 was introduced to strengthen our democratic process and empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be in tune with modern expectations on the use of technology towards free, fair, and credible elections and engender public confidence in the electoral process.
“In the area of Constitution amendments, the 9th National Assembly, also made far reaching amendments in the area of power devolutions like Prisons, Railways, among others.”
Weaknesses
However, as remarkable as some of the laws made by the 9th National Assembly were it failed to address some of the most fundamental ones like the over centralisation of the nation’s security architecture.
In the constitution review exercise, of all the 66 items , presented for consideration at both chambers , the clamour for State Police by concerned Nigerians was not included, which made many of the state governors to influence members of their Houses of Assembly not to concur to Local Government Autonomy proposal from the National Assembly.
Unfinished business
With the exit of the Lawan and Gbajabiamila-led Assembly, many Nigerians have expressed dissatisfaction on how the lawmakers fared in the area of probes and pursuit of some key initiatives and legislations, which would have further strengthened the polity.
Some of the major issues, which the 9th NASS set out to do but could not complete include probes of alleged financial malfeasance by some MDAs.
Recall that the 9th NASS, in the last four years embarked on several probes, in the discharge of its legislative agenda. While several of the probes were completed and reports laid, to the parliament, some high profile probes were either aborted or abandoned.
Readily cited amongst such include investigation into the alleged 22 million barrels of crude oil theft: On September 26, 2019, the House of Representatives adopted a motion by member representing Aguata Federal Constituency of Anambra state, Chukwuma Umeoji, calling for a probe of alleged theft of 22 million barrels of crude oil between January to June, 2019.
The House set up an ad-hoc committee headed by the |Deputy House Leader, Peter Akpatason, to undertake the investigation, but nothing came out until the exit of the assembly on Tuesday.
Another was the Chinese loans probe embarked on by the Committee on Treaties and Protocol, headed by Ossai Nicholas Ossai, in 2020, .which was intended to unravel the conditions under which Nigeria obtained the controversial loans
During the attempted probe, situations turned dramatic turn as Ossai and the then Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, engaged in hot verbal exchanges, with the minister accusing the committee of pursuing a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agenda.
Days after the open confrontation, leadership of the House in a letter by Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, the then Majority Leader, directed a stop to all ongoing probes by any committee of the House. The Chinese loans saga never resurfaced.
Also, the launched probe of the alleged financial malfeasance by the former Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), in May 2020 ended abruptly, and unexplained. Though the panel laid its report in spite of the drama, it was never listed for consideration and adoption.
More on the list of abandoned probes include the arms purchase probe, the worrisome out of school children investigation and the Covid-19 federal government intervention probe.
And for bills, no fewer than 2,200 were introduced on the floor of the House, but just about 500 were passed.
This leaves a lot of expectations of Nigerians from the new assembly.
Challenge for 19 NASS
Tasks before the 10th National Assembly
In the constitution review exercise to be undertaken by the 9th National Assembly, provisions for possible establishment of State Police by interested State governments, should be looked into.
The issue of poor perception or bad image of the National Assembly should also be addressed by all the 469 federal lawmakers.
Gratifyingly, one of them, precisely Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP Bauchi Central) declared to Nigerians three days ago that the 10th Senate would not be confrontational to the executive and at the same time, not be rubber stamp for it.
“We are not going to be confrontational as we have never been, but we are not going to be laid back legislators to make sure we understand some things, we make sure they understand our powers to make sure that we understand our limitations.
“We will out rightly inform the executive of our powers under the constitution, under the House rules and under the legislative matters privileges. We are not going to be caged or turned to rubber stamp parliament,” he said.
Perception of the 10th NASS by Nigerians will surely be determined by its actions and inactions, within the next four years.
