Since British overlords awarded independence to Nigeria in 1960, the legislature has hardly featured as a stable national institution. Though, there have been about five legislative Houses: 1960 € 1964, 1964- -1966, 1979 € 1983, 1983; 1991 € 1993 (under military rule) and now 1999 € 2002, the institution has remained the most unknown, misunderstood and neglected of all the institutions of democratic governance. Its history actually symbolises the story of democracy in Nigeria. The immediate post independence era had one full session and after a much disputed election and accompanying violence, the military took over in 1966. The House did not complete its tenure.
From 1979 to 1983, the legislature existed under a new atmosphere € a presidential system. In a sharp departure from the parliamentary system inherited from the British the legislative (made up of the two chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives) was SEPARATE from the Executive Branch. A second legislative House (National Assembly) was inaugurated in October , 1983. However, on December 31, 1983, it was disbanded in a putsch headed by Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
Under intense pressure to return the country to democratic governance, the military government under General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, which overthrew the Buhari government, organised series of elections in 1991. The elections saw the inauguration of State Governors, State legislative Houses and the National Assembly. The State Houses of Assembly were answerable to the Governor, who reported to the Military President.
The National Assembly was answerable to the military Head of State, who had earlier given instructions on what the Assembly could discuss and what it could not. Shortly before the Assembly was disbanded in 1993, the military, which had handed over power to civilian nominees called the Interim National Government (ING), took over the reins of power again.
It instructed the Assembly, in the words of the then Senate President Ameh Ebute
We nevertheless went back to the Senate but before we went back to the Senate, the then Commander of the Brigade of Guards, Major General Bashir Magashi, informed me that we should not discuss anything about what was happening (the Abacha coup) and I said, what? How could you think it was possible for us not to discuss the handover or the so-called resignation of Shonekan? He said, no, that was the instruction he received from above, and if we don€„¢t want to be rough handled by the boys, €œdo not discuss it€.
This was not a novel practice. The British Colonial authorities had Legislative Houses, which did not have powers. They were rubber stamps, whose existence merely decorated the system. Besides the decoration, the colonial authorities sought to satisfy the yearnings of popular participation without relinquishing control.
A few points stand out from the above narration. First, an independent legislature has not really operated in Nigeria before now. Second, in Nigeria€„¢s 42 year of existence as an independent state the legislature has lived for only twelve years. Third, it has been the target of military takeovers because it is the only feature of governance that distinguishes democracy from authoritarianism. Fourth, arising out of the above is the fact that the legislature possesses the least capacity to perform its functions, in terms of resources and precedents.
This problem of lack of capacity is compounded by the fact that government has operated for about thirty years without the legislature and so very few people (even those within the legislature) know why such an expensive institution should be maintained. Both members of the legislative Houses, the public and Executive are at loss as to what the responsibilities and authority of the legislature should be. With time, this confusion is likely to clear and the legislature, if democracy thrives long enough, will become the €œmainstay€ of democracy, in both perception and reality.
The current National Assembly was born into controversy. The President was sworn in on May 29, 1999, and he did not proclaim the inauguration of the National Assembly till June 3, 1999. In the glare of national television, the President inspected the uncompleted National Assembly premises to justify the delay in the issuance of the proclamation. What, of course, this showed was that the departing military authorities had not prepared the necessary infrastructures for the take off of the legislature. This delay in the inauguration, even for good reason, planted seeds of discord and mistrust. When the National Assembly was finally inaugurated, members were lodged in hotels at government expense. Government then spent on the average about N30, 000.00 each day on each member of the National Assembly.
In their wisdom, (some may say, naivety) members chose to collect fifteen thousand Naira (N15, 000.00) Daily Tour Allowance (DTA) € already determined and fixed by the government bureaucracy rather than live in hotels. This decision seemed to have offended certain interests in the hotel business and the bureaucracy. The information was leaked to the press and, of course, it did not go down well with poverty-stricken electors, some of whom did not have food to eat. It was believed to be reckless and callous to collect fifteen thousand Naira everyday, the equivalent of the monthly wages of a senior officer in the Federal Civil service
Shortly after, members of the National Assembly decided to have furnishing allowances € paid directly to them rather than allow government contractors furnish the houses at very high fees. Senators who have bigger apartments were paid three million five hundred thousand Naira (N3.5M) only while members of the House collected two million, five hundred thousand Naira (N2.5M) only. The public, which did not know that government had planned to award the contracts for the furnishing of the Houses for higher figures, was incensed Government had earlier planned to award the contacts for thr furnishing of the houses of Senators at eleven million Naira per House and eight million Naira for each House of the members of the House of Representatives.
For more than a year the public kept talking about this. Of course, the public did not know that civil servants of the rank of Assistant Directors and above spend almost four million Naira or more for furnishing their houses.
Then came the 2000 Appropriation Act; the National Assembly € which still lacks facilities for operations € increased the budgetary allocations for the Assembly. The public was again angry. The fact that the National Assembly needed offices, computers, cars, etc, did not matter. Increasingly, the Assembly came to be seen as an irritant and unnecessary baggage or decoration of the new system of administration. Largely because the budget was submitted late and the procedures for passage are tedious, the public became very angry with the National Assembly for the late passage of the budget. This was because, non release of funds for projects and government business was attributed to the fact that the budget had not yet being passed. However, even when the budget was passed it was not implemented. Funds were not released for projects budgeted for, and released for projects not provided for in the appropriation acts.
Of course, the current National Assembly was treading on a well-trodden path of controversy over money and perks of office. Most of the 1979 €1983 legislative period was spent on controversy on the wages of legislators. The framers of the 1999 constitution took cognisance of this problem and removed powers to fix wages of legislators from the National Assembly to the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.
What role should the National Assembly play?
The controversies generated by the budget of 1999 raised several questions of what role should the National Assembly play. Several commentators thought that the National Assembly should give its consent to whatever the President proposed. Some even thought, and still argue that the National Assembly should not increase or adjust budgetary proposition of the President.
However, Parliament arose from the fact that the King or Monarch needed to be guided in the United Kingdom. As early as the 14th century, under King Edward 111 (1327 €77) it had been accepted in England that there should be no taxation without parliamentary consent. In the 17th century , when parliament and the King could not agree on who controls troops during the Irish rebellion, the resulting tension led to the execution of King Charles. When the Monarchy was restored in 1668, the Bill of Rights, which established the authority of the parliament over the King, was passed. The English Parliament has two chambers: the House of Lords also referred to as the Upper Chambers and the House of Commons. At the beginning, the House of Lords, which is constituted by the nobility could veto bills or block actions of the elected House of Commons. This has changed since and the House of Lords is more or less ceremonial and by appropriate legislations, the House of Commons superiority over it has been established.
The Bill of Rights established binding principles including the following:
(1) No law could be made or suspended without parliamentary consent;
(2) Taxation or levying money for the use of the
crown without parliamentary consent is illegal
(3) Illegality of raising an Army without parliamentary consent; and
(4) Freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in parliament cannot be questioned or impeached in any court or place outside parliament.
The United States of America borrowed the principles of the bill of Rights to create its constitution whose main strength is the separation of powers between the three branches of Government. These branches are first, the Executive, which comprises only of the president (ministers or Secretaries are his aides) Second, the Congress, which is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and third the judiciary. It may be noted that under the system in the United States, the Vice president presides over the Senate. In reality though, the Vice president rarely goes to the Senate.
The Congress in the United States lays down (initiates) policies of Government or approves policies from the Executive branch and the President implements approved policies of Government.
Fob James, a former Governor in the United States explained the practice in these words:
€œThe legislature should be the political body which decides most of the fundamental issues in American society€¦the legislature is that body closest to the people€.
The extent to which the Congress leads the other arms of Government is dependent on how close it is to the people. This explains why public opinion polls have become so important in the politics of the United States of America. The press too, owes its relevance, as the fourth estate of the realm, to its role of opening up Governmental intrigues and secrecies to the public.
In order to ensure that the people control affairs in the United States, the constitution gives a lot of powers to the Congress. These include power over the use of armed Forces, and the national Treasury.
In the same way, both Constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1979 and 1999) gave the National Assembly almost absolute powers over the National treasury and matters of prosecution of war with another country. As a matter of fact, the National Assembly regulates how the President functions as Commander-In-Chief. This indeed is the essence of democracy, which, as we all know, is defined as government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The people, at regular intervals, in our case, every four years, through adult suffrage choose new leaders. The leaders are expected to work for the good of the people.
Presidential democracy also provides for a legislature, independent of those who regularly administer the affairs of the State. Power, it is said, in democracy, lies with the people. During the periods between elections, the legislature acts on behalf of the people. In other words, the sovereignty of the people is exercised on its behalf by the legislature.
This is why in our system, as with the system in the United States of America, it is only the legislature that can impose sanctions on holders of offices. For, instance only the legislature can remove a member of the legislative house from office; or the law courts, if a case, of criminal nature or any dispute arises. The only other way to remove a legislator is through a referendum. And, of course, while the legislature can impeach (remove from office) the President, no matter how dissatisfied the President is with the legislature, he cannot dissolve it. Indeed, where the executive disagrees with the legislature, and the President vetoes any bill, the National Assembly can brush aside (over ride) such a veto. This can only be done through two-thirds majority vote in both chambers.
As can be seen from the above, the National Assembly possesses enormous powers, which have not been fully exercised in this learning period. It is obvious that, the 1999 Constitution positions the National Assembly as the senior partner in the democratic enterprise
The Honourable Speaker captured the Constitutional provisions when he stated:
€œTHE Constitution of the Federal Republic (1999) is the Bible or Koran of this democratic dispensation. It is the supreme Law of the land € which can only be breached at the peril of the person breaching it. Sections 80 to 89 give wide powers to the legislature (at the National level) over the finances of the Federation.
Section 80 (3) states as follows: No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly.
* No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly
Section 85 (2) directs the Auditor General of the Federation to submit his report to the National Assembly.
Section 88 grants powers to the National Assembly to investigate any matter under which it has powers to legislate.
Section 89 grants it powers to summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence (this includes the President of the Federal Republic) or procure any document.
In the exercise of this, it has the powers to issue warrants to compel attendance and the warrant can be executed by any member of the Nigerian Police force or ANY PERSON authorise in that behalf by the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Besides its powers over the budget, the National Assembly, in the 1999 Constitution, is vested with approving authority of all decisions of Government. The policies and general directions of government are laid down by the National Assembly and the Executive Arm of government and the Judiciary to some extent implement and enforce such decisions.
€œFor instance Local Governments created by the State Houses of Assembly can only become legitimate Local Governments when the National Assembly approves them. (Section 8); State creation and adjustments of State boundaries can only be done by the National Assembly; treaties and external agreements need to be legitimised the legislature (section 12) As a matter of fact, bodies that are independent are independent only to the extent that they report to the National Assembly.€
Despite these shortcomings the House of Representatives has been performing its duties effectively. (See Appendix for full report) The next legislative House is likely to be stormy or more vibrant.
Increasingly Nigerians are recognizing the importance of the Legislature and the role that it should play in the life of the polity. The flurry of commentaries, often very critical and negative, as well as the impeachment threat resolution of the House of Representatives appears to have awakened interest in the legislature. Though, the yardstick for measuring performance does not exist now, Nigerians believe that the Legislature could have done better. Sometimes the same persons saying that the legislature has not performed well argue in the same breadth that the national Assembly has not cooperated fully with the Executive, that it has been too confrontational.
The Civil society groups, which should have €œhelped€ the National Assembly, are still transiting from their €œcriticism role€ to €œParticipatory role€ of advocating and motivating legislators to expand democratic space. They are yet to see themselves fully as partners with the legislature.
In spite of all its shortcomings and the strident criticisms against it, the major challenge of the legislature in the next few years would be to assert itself, impose its relevance, prove that it really represents the people and acquire all the powers that are written down in the constitution for it. So far, it has been limited by perceptions, lack of resources and its own capacity.
The biggest challenge of the legislature is the establishment of legitimacy among the people. The connection between the legislature and the people is the only reason why, over the years, it has acquired more power than other arms of government.
Institutionally this is possible because of the pluralism of parliaments as it often reflects the pluralism of the polity. Improving the quality of representation is therefore a challenge for the people, and this can also be more effectively done, when there is flexibility in the delineation of constituencies. The establishment of constituency offices by Legislators at the National level ought to be encouraged and enforced. State Legislators ought to be accorded the same privileges.
The civil Society groups are an important link in the chain between the legislature and the people. The civil Society groups need to empower the constituents to ensure that constituency offices are opened € and are functional all year round. The legislature needs the civil Society groups to disseminate information of its activities among vocal members of society. Of course, the tools of information and communications Technology (ICT) make interaction very possible at both mass and individual levels. Live video and audio streams, chat rooms, discussion boards and emails make interaction possible and cheap. Besides, regular town hall constituency consultations are necessary for proper representation.
There is also the need for the legislature to enhance its capacity. Those elected as legislators need to know the laws of the land (or educate themselves on the laws) as they affect their constituents. Capacity building needs not be foreign agencies driven; these ought to be major focus. Activities to enhance capacity building include, training, workshops, seminars, field visits and parliamentary exchanges, human resources development and the dissemination of best practices and lessons learned. The current legislature has suffered greatly from the lack of staff and as well as facilities such as office spaces. These need to be put in place because, the quality of every legislature is dependent on the quality of its aides- who conduct research, write memos, conduct opinion polls, keep in touch with constituents and help direct the legislator.
Of course all these require funding which has been a major problem. There is the need to improve the funding to the legislature-and also for the funds available to be applied in a manner that greater good would be achieved.
CONCLUSION
It is important to note that every society gets the legislature it wants to have. But the legislature may be able to change the society. The people need to know that the contact between them and the elected MUST BE CONTINOUS. The people make representatives responsible. Those that do not want to be responsible can be made to face the publics€„¢ big stick- that is recall.
NOTES
1. Declaration of Rights, February 13, 1689
House of Commons Information Office,
http://www.parliament.uk
2. House of Parliament. http://www.parliament.uk
3. Governor Fob James, separation of powers- the cornerstone of American democracy, delivered at the American Legislature Council Address August, 1995;http://www.positive atheism.org/writ/jamesalec.htm.
Vanessa, A Bard and Mark Hurtwitz
4. Can the Supreme Court €œGo Public€? The influence of the Supreme Court on congress.
5. http://www.unpan.org/information/technical highlights/participants.htm
6. Parliamentary Supremacy, judicial independence. Latimer House Guidelines for the commonwealth. 19 June 1998.