The national assembly is failing in its oversight responsibilities in checkmating the excesses of the executive branch. This has cumulatively led to excruciating economic hardship being experienced by citizens today.
The National Assembly (NASS) of Nigeria is charged with the responsibility of overseeing the executive arm of government. But it has abdicated the crucial responsibility to address the biting hardship afflicted on Nigerians by the economic policies introduced by the current and past administrations.
The 10th National Assembly is playing to the gallery and has not in any way shown willingness to hold the executive accountable and fight corruption through constitutional instrumentality. In taking this posture, the parliament has not genuinely signaled their support for the masses – and this judging by their actions and inactions. In a dramatic twist, lawmakers have been playing to the gallery by issuing press statements and holding press conferences to persuade angry citizens from going ahead with the nationwide protest which held the country down to its knees. Instead of addressing the failing policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration, they preferred to put the cart before the horse by urging citizens to continue to bear hardships.
The salary gimmick by Reps…
Although the decision by the lawmakers in the House of Representatives last month to forfeit 50% of their salaries over the next six months aimed to dissuade Nigerians from proceeding with the mass protests, the move did not hold water. While some citizens applauded the gesture, many saw it as a gimmick given that the donated amount (₦648 million) was a drop in the ocean. The failure to take appropriate measures to tackle the economic challenges at the root is responsible for the woes faced by the Nigerians today. It is noteworthy that the current NASS has abandoned it oversight functions as not much is heard from the parliamentarians in this regard one year after inauguration. Since the beginning of this administration, Nigeria has been battling one of the worst financial downtimes in the nation’s history, with heavy debts hanging and dangling on its neck. The average Nigerian is striving to survive this economic crisis leading to untimely death as many persons have reportedly committed suicide. The impact of petrol subsidy removal was swift and unsparing. Immediately the pump price of petrol tripled, the prices of food, commuting, medication and other basic necessities skyrocketed. Precious time was dissipated on the best way to provide succor to the needy, while the poor and the marginalised continued to wallow in unmitigated pains. One year later, the National Assembly is yet to call the executive to order on its promises to put in place concrete programmes that will cushion the negative effects of the unexpected removal of subsidy.
Swift subsidy removal and slow palliative measures
Recall that Bola Tinubu had announced the removal of fuel subsidy on 29th May 2023. He disclosed this in his inaugural speech as the new President of Nigeria. According to him, “Subsidy is gone, subsidy can no longer justify its ever increasing costs in the wake of drying resources,” he declared. Early in July 2023, the national assembly received a communication from President Bola Tinubu as he sought approval from the Senate and House of Representatives for a $800 million loan and N500 billion palliative expenditure. The President, in his letter to the House of Representatives, stated that the request was necessary to enable the government to provide palliatives for Nigerians to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy. “I write to request for the amendment of the 2022 supplementary appropriation act. The request became necessary among others things, to source for funds to provide necessary palliative to mitigate the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians. Thus, the sum of N500 billion only has been extracted from the 2022 supplementary 7 act of N819 billion, 536 million, 937 thousand 803 naira only for the provisions of palliatives for Nigerians to cushion the effects of subsidy removal“, Tinubu had said.
National Assembly silence on BetaEdugate
Amidst hardship, poverty and food shortages, it is more than six months since Beta Edu, the minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and poverty alleviation, was suspended over corruption allegations leveled against her and nothing has been heard on her replacement. It is even more worrisome that the national assembly is yet to invite her for questioning and neither has any motion been sponsored by the lawmakers to investigate the allegations. Ms Edu was accused of approving payment of hundreds of millions of naira into private accounts of civil servants. She was also under criticism from Nigerians for ordering the transfer of N585.2 million into the private bank account of a civil servant, who is the accountant in charge of grants for vulnerable Nigerians. A former member of the House of Representatives, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo was fingered in the BetaEdugate scandal. Tunji-Ojo, the minister of interior, was accused of using his office to secure a project for a company he founded. According to reports, the company was one of the consultants awarded contracts worth over N428 million by the suspended minister who was also in charge of the national social register. He is said to be the owner of the company registered on March 3, 2009. The former lawmaker’s action violates the Nigerian Constitution, Code of Conduct law and extant financial regulations. Nonetheless, neither the senate nor house of representatives has deemed it fit to investigate the allegations in exercise of oversight powers.
Rep. Chike Okafor defends NASS…
Speaking to OrderPaper on why the national assembly has remained quiet over the allegations regarding Beta Edu and Tunji-Ojo, Rep. Chike John Okafor (APC , Imo) said the executive was already investigating the matter. Okafor, who is the chairman of the house committee on malnutrition and food security, said the national assembly can not overstep it’s boundaries. He stated: “That is a mistake alot of people make by not understanding properly the job of a legislature. You know, so that we do not overstep our bounds. We have a constitutional role and constitutional responsibilities, which are quite different and distant from that of the executive arm of government. The national assembly is not the employer of the minister. In fact, the president is. And the president in his wisdom woke up one day and realised that there were so many issues in the ministry. Not only directly, you know, talking about the food school feeding programme. There were issues in the ministry and an alarm was raised. And the president did the right thing. While they were calling for an investigation and dealing with the investigation, the president suspended the minister. The minister is under suspension and then I think investigations are ongoing. The legislature can not come in, don’t kill a fly with a sledgehammer. The legislature ought not to come in and begin to interfere where the president in his wisdom had seen reason to direct for some proper investigation, which is ongoing. And then the minister is suspended. Now, I say that to say that we must, it’s high time that we stay in our lane.
“Let me use a Nigerian word, stay in your lane, I stay in my lane. The issues that called for the suspension of the minister were not generated from the national assembly. They were internally generated within the executive and the president, you know, is dealing with it. So we will allow them to exhaust what the president has directed them to do with respect to investigation. But let me also call your mind. Recently, there was a motion on the floor calling for the investigations of the homegrown feeding programme. So, meaning that the legislature has also come in. The motion was speaking to the dangers of suspending the program. The motion was speaking to the dangers because, sincerely speaking, no matter how much the programme has been marred with inequalities, we cannot deny the fact that they were putting at least one square meal on the table, you know, for children who are within the school age”, he explained further.
Has the Tinubu government overwhelmed the NASS?
The abdication of oversight responsibilities by the national assembly raises the question of whether or not lawmakers have been overwhlmed by the executive arm of the government. Recall that OrderPaper did a research on the preponderenace of public office holders who transitioned from legislature to the executive and revealed succinctly that the Tinubu administration, with very high numbers of these appointees, would wield the biggest influence on the legislature in the history of the country’s democracy. The research, titled, ‘From Legislature to the Executive (FLEX)’ stated that“22 out of the 48-member federal cabinet appointees were members of the National or State Assemblies, thereby giving President Tinubu the record of transitioning the largest number of politicians from the legislature to the executive in one fell swoop”. The research, hailed by eminent individuals in public life, noted that President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, the Secretary to Government of Federation ( SGF), George Akume and Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila are also former members of the federal legislature, a fact that reinforces fears that the national assembly may buckle under the infleunce of the Tinubu-led executive.
