A lot has been said during debates on the rate at which legislators lose their return bids in Nigeria, with concerns that the phenomenon is affecting the effectiveness of lawmaking in the country. JOSHUA EGBODO writes on the issue and experts’ recommendations as ways out ahead the 2023 general election
An institution in limbo?
The history of the legislature as an arm of government in Nigeria, to many appeared rather unpalatable. Experts have been of the opinion that despite the strategic importance, the Legislature has remained the least developed among the three arms of government due to many reasons.
In a paper presented on Monday during an event organised by the House of Representatives Press Corps on the subject matter, Director General of the National Institute for Democratic and Legislative Studies (NILDS), Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, pointed out some of those reasons to include the incessant military interventions in Nigeria, executive meddling, rotation and so on.
“Since 1999, our practice of uninterrupted democracy, the stability, and the progress of the legislature have been hampered significantly due to high rate of legislative attrition. The continuous replacement of significant members of the legislature after each general election cycle has serious implications for its ability to perform its role effectively. This has led to several capacity gaps in our legislative practice and procedures at both the state and national levels.
“For instance, since 1999, in both chambers of the National Assembly, less than 5% of the lawmakers have been in the Legislature since the return to civil rule in 1999, as compared to other democracies such as the United States, where being a Congressman is seen as a career and it is not uncommon to find members with over 20 years of experience in the congress”, he stated during the lecture on the theme; High turnover of lawmakers: impact and way forward.
A worrisome trend
It has been on record that just a few members of the House of Representatives have succeeded in crossing over to the Senate, in the words of the NILDS’ boss, “only a hand full of them can boast of having served up to four times in the hallowed chambers. Already, there is a clear indication that the incoming 10th National Assembly might be worse than the previous ones. When the 9th Assembly was inaugurated, there were about 215 new members, against a little over 130 old members which cut across all the political parties”.
Analysts usually made references to the United States of America, a presidential democracy which Nigeria adopted to a great measure, and the U.K. as places where lawmakers serve for a reasonable length of time. As it is today, not less than 130 members of the current House of Representatives can comfortably be said to have been out of contest for the 2023 election, without tickets from their respective political parties. “There are fears that the number of lawmakers that will return may further deplete. This indicates that the number of fresh lawmakers in the incoming 10th Assembly in 2023 may be higher than the last Assembly”, Prof. Sulaiman had stated.
The pattern
According to Professor Sulaiman, studies conducted by NILDS in the past and the recent one by former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, have indicated that the re-election to the Nigerian legislative houses at both national and state levels has been very low, leading to a high rate of legislative turnover in the country.
He said “For example, out of 109 elected Senators in the sixth National Assembly in 2007, 86 (79%) were new members while only 23 (21%) were reelected. This means that 79% of the Senators that served in the 5th Assembly were not returned to the 6th Assembly. This trend continued in the seventh Assembly (2011 – 2015) where only 36 (33%) of the 109 Senators were returned while 73 (67%) were new members.
“In the House of Representatives, studies also show that out of 360 members in the 2011- 2015 National Assembly, only 100 (28%) were re-elected while 260 (72.2%) were made up of new members. This represents a turnover rate of 72.2% of the number of members of the house that did not make it from the 6th Assembly to the 7th Assembly. This trend also continued in the 8th NASS, where more than 70 Senators and 250 members of the House from the 7th Assembly were not re-elected respectively.
“This shows that 39 (35%) Senators were re-elected, showing a turnover rate of 64.2%. The House of Representatives for the same period shows that only 110 were re-elected, giving a turnover rate of 69.5%.
“This trend in legislative attrition did not differ significantly in 2019 where about 64 Senators and 151 House of Representatives’ Members were not re-elected in the current 9th Assembly. The situation is expected to be worse in the 10th Assembly because of the trend already shown during the primary election in which more than 70% of the Legislators failed to secure return tickets during their party primaries in 2022. Indeed, out of the 30% that secured party-return tickets, many of them may not make it to the 2023 general election, further compounding the already worse situation”.
Who, what to blame
Beyond the nature of Nigeria’s elective office especially that of the Legislature which makes it attractive for cutthroat competition, Professor Sulaiman pointed out other factors responsible for high turnover of lawmakers to include Selection Process (party primaries), Election process, Voluntary and involuntary reasons such as death, incapacity, retirement, seeking higher offices, family pressure and even professional advancement or demands.
“Concerning voluntary reasons for the high turnover rate of Legislators in Nigeria, many of them take a voluntary exit or retirement from the Parliament to face their businesses, professions or even family (Diane Kincaid Blair and Ann R. Henry, 2018). Majority of Legislators also seek higher offices in the Executive arm, especially as Governors. Win or lose, most of these lawmakers do not return to the Parliament in the next election cycle to continue their tenure”, he said in reference to voluntary reasons.
Recommended ways forward
With the resultant negative impact of the high rate of legislators turnover, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, represented at the said event on Monday by Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Peter Akpatason, blamed the actions of state governors as partly responsible for the problem. The NILDS boss therefore rolled out a number of panacea, which pundits said must be listened to. “Those elected into the Parliament should have the knowledge and experience to understand the basic process of lawmaking and be able to engage with policy and other technical issues routinely presented to the Parliament rather than just being loyal candidates to party warlords or Governors.
He noted further that “The legislative arm of government must be strengthened through financial and administrative autonomy. The over-dependence of most state Houses of Assembly on funding from the Executive makes them susceptible to manipulation and Executive control. Most State Houses of Assembly have not been able to perform their constitutionally assigned roles of oversight on the Executive because the leadership of such houses are mere appendages of the Executive…
“There is also the need for more public education on the democratic process and the role of the Legislature at all levels of governance. A situation where the electorates expect the legislature to perform the statutory role of the Executive, especially, the provision of infrastructure and facilities, they will always subject the lawmakers to wrong indices of performance assessment, thereby portraying them as ineffective even though they are diligent in their legislative duties…
“Another possible intervention to stem the high turnover is legislative actions by way of amendment to our Constitution. This could be by prescribing more years for the legislative tenure or stemming the incursion of retired Governors and other Executives into eroding the independence of the Legislature. The Legislature is too important to be the retirement home of Governors and other Executive bigwigs…
“There is also the need to raise the educational qualification required to be a Member of Parliament in Nigeria. Considering the complex nature of issues that the Legislature must deal with ranging from education, health, and social welfare to the environment and climate change as well as a host of other critical issues, a minimum of a University Degree or its equivalent should be the entry qualification to the Legislatures at both the national and state levels…
“There is a need to de-emphasize money politics in Nigeria and the ostentatious living style of our politicians. Politics should be about service to the country and not the short route to accumulating personal wealth. Until the public perceives Legislators as serving the interest of the public and not as means of primitive accumulation of wealth, the fierce competition to replace them at every turn of the general election will continue unabated”.
A shift expected?
With the 2023 general election just months away, many have argued that a shift away from the running tend might not be feasible, with fears that the turnover rate night be higher in the expected National Assembly. The pessimism has been justified on the premise that a good number of the suggested panacea require legislative interventions, which the outgoing National Assembly or state parliaments may have no time to do.
NILDS’ panacea to high rate of lawmakers’ turnover
