Ahead of the June take-off date of the 9th Session of the National Assembly (House of Representatives) stakeholders in democratic governance has suggested revisit of the unsigned Electoral Act amendment bill, bills that will boost economic prosperity and strengthen institutions as the main legislative agenda.
According to the stakeholders, poor electoral system, economic uncertainties and weak institutions are the bane of Nigeria’s social, political and economic advancement.
The current 8th National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives whose life ends soon, came with a somewhat bogus legislative agenda which almost became difficult to actualise.
The Yakubu Dogara-led House agenda among others states that, “The 8th House of Representatives (2015–2019) takes off against a background of huge expectations from Nigerians about the way government business is conducted.
“To address these expectations, the House of Representatives will implement a Legislative Agenda that will position the House to deliver legislation in aid of development and reforms aimed at improving conditions of living in Nigeria. This Agenda outlines steps and prioritizes legislative actions required to achieve set goals and objectives.
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This Legislative Agenda takes lessons from the experiences of the 7th House of Representatives and seeks to consolidate the gains and achievements thereof. The House recognises that there remains widespread citizens distrust of public institutions and government generally. It is also recognised that there is a lot of public misconception and misperception about the functions and contributions of the legislature to Nigeria’s overall socioeconomic and political development. Yet, the legislature’s contributions to Nigeria’s democracy remain critical and important.”
It also stated that “The 8th House of Representatives will assert its role in providing leadership in the areas of accountable and transparent government, citizens engagement, as well as constituency representation. The House of Representatives will collaborate with its counterpart in the Senate and other arms of government to legislate for the common good of the Nigerian people.
“Our legislative activities will cover critical spheres of life in Nigeria. The House will legislate to achieve reforms in Nigeria’s national economy and development, tackle poverty, unemployment, confront the scourge of corruption, terrorism and security challenges in the country.”
According to the lawmakers, “The House will also give priority to green legislations to address environmental challenges such as desertification, erosion and pollution. The 8th House of Representatives will also work assiduously to improve the governance process in Nigeria by legislating to cut the cost of running government, reduce wastage and tackle National Revenue leakages.
“The House commits to playing its part in rescuing Nigeria from the clutches of hunger, poverty, disease, social, economic, political and infrastructural quagmire. The 8th House of Representatives, as a Peoples’ Parliament, will be sensitive to public demands for transparency and accountability not just by the House of Representatives but also by government at all levels.”
Dogara and his colleagues also said: “Our legislative actions would therefore, seek to build public confidence and trust and be responsive to citizens’ questions regarding the conduct of legislative business. The House will work for public good and serve as the institution that defends the rights of the people to an accountable and transparent government.
“The House’s relationship with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) will be that of partnership and collaboration to deliver on citizens’ expectations of the legislature”.
However, first setting agenda for the incoming House, Mahmood Yakubu Chairman Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC told members-elect to start work early and conclude work on the electoral framework in good time, well ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Yakubu while presenting certificates of return to the incoming 9th National Assembly members at the International Conference Centre Abuja, urged them to come up with a review of the electoral law that would assist the commission to begin work on post-2019 elections review and road map to 2023 as the success of Nigeria’s elections depends on the electoral legal framework.
“As a process governed by law, the success of elections in Nigeria depends, to a large extent, on the electoral legal framework and most importantly in ensuring adherence to the law.
“I want to assure you that we will continue to work with the National Assembly to review and strengthen our electoral law. But, I want to appeal to the senators-elect to please start work early and conclude work on the electoral framework in good time, well ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“The tendency to delay electoral reforms, particularly the review of electoral framework until it is too close to the elections, leaves the commission with little time to develop processes, including regulations and guidelines, make required consultations with stakeholders, embark on effective voter education, including sensitisation, train staff and organise deployment for the elections.
“I am glad that among the members-elect are members that we have worked very closely with and some of them have taken initiatives or even sponsored private member bills to advance the cause of electoral reforms.
“We look forward to working very closely with you in the next Assembly. However, all these are matters to be considered, I hope we will do so in earnest”.
Similarly, Idayat Hassan, Coordinator, Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD called on the incoming 9th Assembly to as a matter of urgency work on electoral reforms and avoid been rubber stamp in the guise of harmonious executive legislative relationship.
“The most important agenda should be electoral reform from day one. The Executive must not just pursue harmonious relationship now that she has majority in government but most also send executive bills to the NASS for passage,” she suggested.
Joseph Otteh, Executive Director, Access to Justice affirmed that amendment of the Electoral should be focus of legislative agenda by the 9th Assembly to curtail the electoral malpractices.
“There are several areas where the National Assembly can help improve governance, beginning from reviewing the process that brought many of them in as lawmakers. That could be a good point of departure. If we do not strengthen the integrity of our electoral system, we will see an escalated level of abuse of the system in future elections.
“Nigeria needs new electoral laws that will provide not just improved balloting procedures, but non-discriminatory and mandatory enforcement of criminal laws governing the conduct of elections and tampering with election results. We should ensure that those who participate in perverting the electoral system must be kept away from the system for a very, very long time as a deterrent.
“There are yet other major challenges that are too many for any brief narrative: we must find ways to make our Constitution more meaningful for our people. The constitutional amendment process must continue until the Constitution truly becomes a peoples’ charter – guaranteeing popular access to the benefits of our commonwealth and patrimony.
“We want to see amendments that say the State must use its resources to cater to the health, housing and feeding of our people, of our elderly, of the unemployed, of the children, so that State resources are not used in servicing extravagant pension payments to ex-Governors who are now serving Senators and are receiving much more than they need.
“We want to see our out-of-school children back to the classrooms, so we can produce citizens who can lead productive lives, notwithstanding that their parents are too poor or uneducated themselves to send them to school. Let the 9th National Assembly pass laws that offer this opportunity and hope to the Nigerian people”, Otteh maintained.
To Jude Uzoma, coordinator, Foundation for Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth, the 9th National Assembly should be very committed and look at public outcry with regard to poverty, poor education, lack of adequate water supply, accommodation and many other issues.
Uzoma also advocated reworking of the Electoral Act amendment bill, making laws that will strengthen anti graft agencies and diversify the economy.
“I look forward to the National Assembly passing laws, not just passing laws and making sure the existing laws become functional. Particularly when we talk about the Electoral Act that the President refused to assent to in the last National Assembly, you will realize that it not just because the President feel entrapped by the Electoral Act. It is probably because certain clauses were politically inclined and to favour some interests. So in the 9th National Assembly we don’t need all that, in as much as we want the President to assent to the Electoral Act, there must be amendments.
“The schedule of election in Nigeria where the Presidency comes first and then the State(governorship) comes second should be reviewed. The President and the State governors elections should hold on the same day while the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly be the same day. This will reduce tension. Why do we have tension? Some other persons are depending on the other person – you must deliver me before I can deliver you. I think it will help go a long way in building our democracy.
“I think the anti graft agencies – the constitutional structures of these agencies are susceptible to control by the President. The 9th National Assembly should carry out amendment of their acts to be completely independent of the influence of the President. We need an amendment to these structures because when we have structures that are at the mercy of other structures, they become eventually dysfunctional. If you can get the anti graft agencies working properly, we have gotten 69percent of our problems solved because the bane of Nigeria socioeconomic development is corruption. We can say any other thing but the major problem is corruption. Corruption field religious bigotry, ethnic cleansing, name it.
“Diversifying our economy because now it is largely monolithic; depending on oil. Particularly, the manufacturing and mining are key to industrialization but are also hinged on power. We must get away from consuming culture in our economy. We are consumer related in our economy.
“Businesses are growing in Nigeria but they are not growing in terms of manufacturing they are growing on behalf of manufacturers in other countries. What that means is that we will be hardly in charge of our Naira, we won’t be able to stabilize inflation because a lot of things we consume here are determined by the behaviour of the manufacturer abroad. Our National Assembly should focus on manufacturing laws”, he stated.
Evans Ufeli, Executive Director, Cadrell Advocacy Centre, asked the 9th Assembly to amendment the constitution to improve economic fortunes of Nigerians while the Petroleum Industry Bill should be fully passed to change the narrative of the oil sector.
“Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution which defines the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policies must be made justiceable so that the socio-economic right of Nigerians can be guaranteed. The constitution should be amended so the socioeconomic rights of Nigerians as drawn in the 1999 Constitution as amended, can in truth and indeed, guarantee the security and welfare of the people as the primary purpose of government.
“The Petroleum Industry Bill needs to be passed fully. Having split the Bill into four parts, a full passage of that Bill is required to enable the efficient administration of the petroleum sector which constitutes about 15 per cent of our GDP in Nigeria.
“In my view, the 9th Assembly must look graphically into the economy and its growth rate, then make and pass sensitive legislations that will help to revive the economy which currently borders on recession,” Ufeli suggested.
James Kwen, Abuja
