Former President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday last week described the 9th National Assembly as the most productive in Nigeria’s history against public perception of being rubber stamp of the executive arm of government. TAIYE ODEWALE reports
Perception
As defined by Cambridge Dictionary, perception connotes belief or opinion, often held by many people about something, person, persons or policy.
Derivatively, public perception of the 9th National Assembly due to its harmonious working relationship with the executive arm of government, is one of a ‘rubber stamp’, as far as expeditious approvals of requests from the presidency are concerned.
Reactions to the perception
Apparently worried by the wrong perception of being ‘a rubber stamp parliament’, both the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila in separate speeches at the induction held for federal lawmakers – elect for the 10th National Assembly , earlier in the month, reacted to it by saying that the 9th National Assembly is not a rubber stamp of the executive arm of government.
Specifically, Ahmad Lawan in his own reaction, said : “At the onset, the 9th Senate was mindful of the damaging effect of persistent conflict with the Executive and the resultant impact on legislative activities.
“We were equally aware that a good working relationship is desirable and indeed imperative to achieve effective and efficient service delivery to the people.
“This approach to engaging with the executive has led to a misperception and misunderstanding, which has led many to tag the 9th National Assembly as a “rubber stamp” Assembly.
“Yet, our intention in preferring an engagement with the executive based on harmony and collaboration has been to better serve Nigeria by providing a safe atmosphere for national development.
“There is no doubt that this has proven to be beneficial to the people we represent. Compared to previous Assemblies, the achievement of the 9th National Assembly in the area of law-making is attributable to harmonious executive-legislative relations, which, contrary to many expectations, need not be aggressive.
“In line with our well-articulated Legislative Agenda, the 9th Senate prioritised the return of the Federal Budget to predictable January-December cycle, concerns of security, corruption, youth employment, poverty alleviation, education, health care provision, gender, economic growth and diversification, and oil and gas, among others.
“In addition, we targeted various and timely legislative interventions and other parliamentary functions and committed ourselves to work in a bipartisan manner to address the myriad problems confronting Nigeria. In this, our decisions have been collective, purposeful and patriotic.
“The 9th National Assembly has broken many ‘jinxes’ and done many ‘firsts’, overcoming traditional obstacles through consensus building and clever political brinksmanship.
“We have focused our energy working on legislations that have salubrious effects on the lives of Nigerians. In this regard, the 9th Senate has performed exceedingly well in terms of the number and quality of the bills introduced, passed and assented to.
“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”.
Gbajabiamila in his own speech, said some Nigerians who labelled the 9th National Assembly as rubber stamp one , got it wrong because legislature was not set up to confront the executive but complement it for good governance.
“Rubber stamp has become a romantic language in the context of its usage in Nigeria a very wrong description of relationship between National Assembly and the executive within the last four years”, he said.
He however added that democratic governance should be more beneficial to Nigeria and Nigerians because too many Nigerians are beginning to wonder if democracy is the right choice of governance and for democracy to meet legitimate expectations of the people, relevant institutions of government, must be made to function well.
Remedy from Buhari
In a more potent way of watering down the wrong perception of the 9th National Assembly by critical minded Nigerians, President Muhammadu Buhari (now former), at the commissioning of Permanent Site of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), on Thursday last week, described it as the most productive in terms of outputs and outcomes.
He said: “Our successes as a government are primarily due to the harmonious relationship between the Executive and the Legislature.
“From the moment of my election in 2015 and subsequently, I supported the idea of an independent National Assembly, one that is able to decide its Leadership and develop its agenda in line with the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“I refrained from meddling in the affairs of the legislature and promoted instead a culture of mutual respect and collaboration between the two arms.
“The numerous positive outcomes for our country Nigeria underscore the importance of a harmonious Executive-Legislature relationship. Working with the National Assembly, we have passed an unprecedented number of Bills into law, provided funding for key infrastructure, implemented several governmental reforms, and addressed some of the long-standing challenges that have hampered economic growth and development.
“Our achievements in reforming the oil and gas sector, strengthening the electoral framework, diversifying our economy, improving transparency and accountability, tackling insecurity and entrenching good governance are easily verifiable.
“As such, this 9th Assembly will be remembered as one of the most productive in terms of outputs and outcomes.
“Again, I thank the Leadership of the National Assembly for giving me the support required to deliver on my promises to Nigerians”.
Earlier, in setting the tone for the remedy from Buhari, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks at the occasion, said Buhari is most parliament-friendly President since the beginning of the Fourth Republic.
His words: “I cannot leave this place without emphasising what you have been very helpful to achieve with us in the 9th National Assembly.
“Whatever we have done here is because you allowed us to do it. Whatever the Executive had been able to achieve, and you have achieved a lot, is because this 9th National Assembly has always been there to give you the kind of support that you need to achieve what you have so far achieved.
“About a week ago I cited a case of you being the most parliament friendly President since the beginning of the Fourth Republic. I am not saying the other Presidents were not friendly. They were but in varying degrees. Yours is total commitment to the Legislature.
“You have never interfered with what we do. You have never even asked that we should do this. You always believe that the National Assembly, especially this Ninth National Assembly, knows it’s challenges and therefore it can perform within the constraints.
“But one thing that you have achieved that past Presidents haven’t, is for you to within four years, 2019 to date, assent to over 100 bills that we have passed. And most of them are not common Bills. Very strategic, critical and crucial Bills, that will change the lives of citizens.
“Our partnership has been working. It has worked in our work. It is working in our operations”
However, the remaining 10 days to expiration of the 9th National Assembly, will determine the extent at which the remedy from former President Buhari works on its image.