The All Progressives Congress
(APC) can officially boast of controlling the National Assembly. This is
because all the presiding officers of the two chambers are not just members of
the party but its anointed candidates for the position.
As usual, all the presiding
officers have come with various promises to make the ninth Senate better for
both legislators and Nigerians in general.
One of the many promises of the
new Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, is to collaborate with the executive arm of
government to strengthen planning and budget linkage while taking care of the
perennial delays in annual appropriation bill passage.
He also promised to pursue
national ethical renewal through legislative and political support for the
fight against corruption and security challenges that the country faces. He
said he has a plan to make Nigeria an economic growth hub and the most
sought-after business destination in Africa.
This, he said, is to be achieved
through legislative and policy coordination with the Executive Arm of
Government to put in place the necessary reforms and legal instruments that
promote diversification and investment in the critical (real and service)
sectors of the Nigerian economy.
The lawmaker further promised to
“frontally address the current high level of youth unemployment,
underemployment and high use of illicit drugs as well as depression and high
rate of suicide.”
Although the Bukola Saraki-led
eight Senate failed in some areas, it, however, recorded some achievements in
others.
Political analysts have advised
the leadership of the new assembly to act on the failures of the eight Senate
and also improve on its achievements.
Below are some things the new
assembly must do to make Nigerians happy:
1, Bring full transparency to
their budget and allowances
From past assemblies, one of the
major calls of Nigerians to lawmakers has been about transparency in their
budgets and allowances.
Many civil society organisations
(CSOs) and human rights groups have accused past assemblies, including the
eight assembly, of embezzling funds through the National Assembly budget as the
lawmakers fail to release details of their annual budgets and allowances.
There have also been calls on the
legislators to cut down their budgets.
In 2015, a campaign calling for
transparency and accountability in the National Assembly budgets was launched.
The campaign tagged #OpenNASS was spearheaded by a civic organisation, BudgIT,
and other CSOs in the country.
According to BudgIT, the National
Assembly budget skyrocketed from N23.3 billion to N139.5 billion with zero
accountability.
It also claimed that the National
Assembly has less than 10,000 staff but its yearly allocation is higher than
the annual budgets of 21 states.
The former Senate President,
Bukola Saraki, attempted to release a version of the National Assembly’s 2018
budget. He, however, failed to release details of the budget.
With the debut of the ninth
Senate, Nigerians are hoping the lawmakers will honour their promise to make
their budget and allowances open.
2. Cancel illegal allowances
Another sure way to impress
Nigerians is definitely the abolition of illegal allowances. These allowances
range from furniture allowances to utility allowances as well as sitting and
‘running cost’ allowances.
These lawmakers receive these
allowances on a monthly basis and they are paid in millions.
One of the controversial
discoveries in 2018 was the 13.5 million running cost allowance that the
senators receive monthly.
This is separate from the
N700,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances which they also receive.
Former Kaduna senator, Shehu Sani
who made the revelation, explained that though there is no specification on
what the funds was meant for, each lawmaker is mandated to provide receipts to
back up their expenses.
It was also discovered that the
money is illegal as it is not approved by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation
and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). This discovery sparked outrage from lawyers,
CSOs and Nigerians who described the money as illegal.
The commission’s spokesperson,
Ibrahim Mohammed, had said the total monthly entitlement of each Senator as
salary and allowances is about N1 million (N1,063,860) – which consisted of
basic salary, motor vehicle fueling and maintenance allowance, personal assistant
pay, domestic staff, entertainment among others.
Many Nigerians believe it would
be better to slash such allowances and channel the funds into basic social
amenities, education, etc.
3. End delay in budget passage
Another factor that brought
public anger against the last Senate and other assemblies before it was the
delay in the passage of the nation’s annual budget.
In 2016, President Muhammadu
Buhari presented the budget on December 22 but it was not passed until March 23
of 2017.
The 2017 budget was presented in
December and was passed on March 11 of the next year. The 2018 budget that was
passed in April was first presented to the National Assembly on December 19,
2018.
On several occasions, the
National Assembly has given excuses like late presentation, failure of MDAs to
appear before committees, oversight functions among others for these delays.
Hopefully, the APC-led ninth
assembly will work to change the trend.
4. End budget padding
Over time, the National Assembly
has been accused of inserting extra costs into budgets, most of which is
suspected to go into the pockets of the lawmakers.
The Acting President, Yemi
Osinbajo, had in 2017 delayed signing of the budget because of removal of
priority projects and introduction of projects by lawmakers.
In 2018, Mr Buhari accused the
lawmakers of cutting out essential projects and inserting non-essential ones.
He said the lawmakers included 6,403 projects of their own, amounting to 578
billion Naira.
He had the same complaint in 2019
when he accused the lawmakers of adding about N90 billion to the N8.83 trillion
he proposed.
In this area, Nigerians are
hopeful that Mr Lawan will fulfil his promise of delivering a transparent and
accountable ninth assembly.
5. Abolish constituency
projects
Every year, N100 billion is
always shared on an agreed 60:40 per cent ratio by the two legislative chambers.
The House of Representatives takes the bulk with N60 billion and the Senate
with N40 billion.
This allocation is made by the
lawmakers to implement or complete projects in their constituencies.
Constituency projects are usually
listed by federal lawmakers for their respective constituencies and implemented
by the government. But the projects have been a subject of intense criticism in
Nigeria, largely due to the abuse they have been subjected to by lawmakers.
Nigerians are hoping the new assembly
will stop the allocation of huge constituency allowances as well as remove or
amend the constituency projects making it the responsibility of the executive.
Others have also asked that the
lawmakers amend the revenue allocation formula to give more resources to states
and local governments.
6. Stop purchase of vehicles
for lawmakers
One major characteristic of past
assemblies is the frequent and unnecessary purchase of exotic cars.
In 2018, documents showed that
the National Assembly paid out a total N6.6billion for purchase of exotic cars
for its members. The purchases were made by the Senate, the House of
Representatives and the management unit of the lawmaking arm.
Records showed that the Senate
spent N3.2billion on cars from 10 different contractors while the House of
Representatives bought N3billion worth of exotic cars in 17 deals.
That was not the first time the
eighth National Assembly under Senate President Bukola Saraki would engage in
an illegal car buying spree.
In December 2015, there was a
plan by the lawmakers to buy cars worth N4.7 billion despite the harsh economic
difficulty the country faced at the time. Although the report sparked
nationwide outrage, the lawmakers went ahead with the procurement.
The Senate’s spokesperson, Aliyu
Abdullahi, once said the vehicles being procured were for committee
assignments.
Bringing an end to this tradition
would hopefully, impress Nigerians.
7. Checks and balances with
executive and healthy relationship with the security
It can be said that the eight
National Assembly had a sour relationship with the executive arm of government.
One of the faults of the past assembly was its failure to check the executive.
Lawmakers were often accused of
confirming unqualified appointees and nominees for ministers, agencies and
departments. At a time, Mr Saraki was criticised for being subtle with the
president.
Another sour relationship was
with the security agencies. The former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim
Idris, snubbed the invitation of the legislators several times.
As promised by the new Senate
President, it is hoped that the new assembly will build and sustain a healthy
relationship with the executive and security.
8. Stop unnecessary passage of
school bills
The eight Senate passed over 60
bills seeking the establishment of tertiary institutions. In as much as it may
seem like an achievement, many Nigerians have kicked against it.
In October 2018, there was a
story published by PremiumTimes on how 20 senators were pushing for the
establishment of universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education. Most of
these bills and many more thereafter were passed by the Senate.
Many are of the opinion that
existing institutions should be properly funded to maximise their functions
instead of creating new ones.
Should the APC-led national
assembly heed this advice, Nigerians would be impressed.
9. Amend archaic or improper
Nigerian laws such as cybercrime act
The Senate had in 204, passed the
Cybercrime Bill and it was signed into law the following year. The bill
provides for the prohibition, detection, response, investigation and
prosecution of Cybercrimes and for other related matters.
The Senate had described the
passage of the bill as a continuation of measures to safeguard the country’s
presence in ensuring the protection of critical information.
Sections of the cybercrime act
have however been used by law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute
government critics and social media users.
There have, therefore, been calls
for a review of the Act. The Chairman of the 8th Senate Committee on ICT and
Cybercrime, Abdulfatai Buhari, had also said the current law on cybercrime in
Nigeria needs to be reviewed to meet the standard in developed countries.
There has also been an emphasis
on the need for the country to study how other countries implement cybercrime
laws – ahead of impending dangers.
10. End delay in presentation
of committee reports
Although the past Senate boasts
of passing the highest number of bills since inception (most of which were done
after adopting the reports from required committees), it ended with many
reports ‘unpresented.’
The committee leaders were
notorious for always giving excuses over failure to present their reports.
In November 2018, Mr Saraki
queried about 14 ad-hoc committees for failure to present their reports on the
set days. He also gave a week ultimatum to the committees to ensure the reports
are submitted.
An end to flimsy excuses and
delay in presentation of reports will attract commendation to the new assembly.
11. INCULCATE PUNCTUALITY
An investigation in 2017,
revealed that the lawmakers do not start plenary until about an hour after the
required time.
Anyone who regularly observes the
plenary sessions is used to the fact that the lawmakers not only arrive late
but fail to settle down early for the sessions to commence. And while they
start late, they never fail to end the business of the day at the predetermined
time – except on a few occasions.
Former Chief Whip, Olusola
Adeyeye, mentioned it as one of the areas where the eight Senate failed. In his
valedictory speech, he urged members of the ninth Senate to set an example and
ensure punctuality in their legislative duties.
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