Senate President, David Mark, hit the nail on the head in his condemnation of the activities of members of state Houses of Assembly, urging the state lawmakers to wean themselves from the apron string of governors.
However, Nigeria’s third citizen ignored, albeit deliberately, the fact that the state legislatures are, to a large extent, simply following the footsteps of the National Assembly, which kleptomaniac records tower above its legislative achievements.
Speaking at the opening of a week-long induction programme for newly elected state lawmakers organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies in Abuja last week, Mark decried the activities of parliaments at the state level, especially in the last 16 years of the country’s democratic experience. He said it was improper that state legislators have reduced themselves to stooges of their state governors.
The general impression of most Nigerians, he said, was that the state Houses of Assembly have remained an appendage of the governors’ offices to the detriment of their constituents. The senate president said that it was sad that state Houses of Assembly failed to muster the political courage to vote for their financial autonomy when the first constitutional amendment offered them the opportunity.
“As lawmakers, you must avoid holding your sessions in the Council Chambers of the Government Houses. It is ignoble to use the mace outside the chamber or borrow Local Government Legislative Council Mace to conduct your affairs or resort to self-help by using your mace to perpetuate violence.
“You must conduct your sittings in line with the provisions of the constitution and the extant rules of the House. As state legislators, you must restrain yourselves from the excessive use of the constitutional provision that empowers you to impeach either your speakers, executive governors or their deputies.
“The Legislature in Nigeria has a chequered history. But in all its travails, the parliament has stood on the side of the people and intervened at the most critical moments to salvage the system from imminent collapse.
“I have always maintained that the most important legacy of the legislature in the last 16 years is its commitment to lawmaking, oversight functions and representation to ensure good governance. The legislature has also come to be recognised as a watchdog of the Executive and an important link between the citizens and the state,” he said.
While we agree with Mark that the state legislatures have convoluted into appendages of the state executive, it is apposite to state that the National Assembly, which is a bi-cameral legislature comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives, has not fared any better in the last 16 years when the outgoing Peoples Democratic Party held sway. This lame duck performance is even more noticeable in the Senate, which has been more concerned with consuming the lion’s share of the ‘national cake’ than checking executive recklessness and rascality.
Notwithstanding the Senate’s resolution of the doctrine of necessity in resolving the constitutional logjam that berthed the Jonathan presidency, the red chamber was caught napping in the civil unrest following the 2012 federal government’s hike in fuel prices. It was regrettable that the federal government’s courage to snub the emergency resolution of the green chambers calling for a reversal of the price hike was reinforced by the docility and indifference of Mark-led Senate to the crisis, which grounded the entire nation at the time.
We, therefore, advise the legislative arm of government at both national and state levels to live up to their responsibilities as stipulated by the 1999 Constitution, as amended. The status quo ante leaves much to be desired. Thus, Nigerians are in high expectation that the change they have voted for in the 2015 general elections which will become effective and operational from May 29, will cut across the entire gamut of the Nigerian society, including the legislature.
