EditorialTHEWILL EDITORIAL: Two Years of Ninth National Assembly

THEWILL EDITORIAL: Two Years of Ninth National Assembly

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The Ninth National Assembly will be two years old on June 11, 2021. Its inauguration on June 11, 2019 also marked 20 years of unbroken democratic rule in Nigeria, which was the longest in the history of the country since 1960 when it attained independence from Britain.

The manner in which the leadership of the Ninth National Assembly emerged was received with great optimism by many Nigerians, who witnessed the ugly politics that transpired during the tenure of the Eighth National Assembly led by Senator Bukola Saraki and Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara.

The emergence of Senator Ahmed Lawan and Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives, respectively, was also seen by pundits as a positive development. Lawan, who is from Yobe State, has been a member of the National Assembly (first in the House of Representatives) since 1999, while Gbajabiamila has been in the House since 2003. With the quality of the leadership of the assembly Nigerians believe their collective destiny is in good hands. However, halfway into its tenure, an assessment of the Ninth National Assembly’s performance shows that the legislature has been all motion without movement.

Glo

As the country reeled under the burden of a harsh economic climate and worsening insecurity these past two years, many expected the National Assembly to wake up a snoring presidency from its deep slumber. Unfortunately this has not been the case. Instead, the legislature appeared to have borrowed a bed from the presidency and engaged it in a sleeping competition, while the country continued to burn.

It is obvious that the National Assembly has abdicated its primary duty, which is to protect the interests of Nigerians. Members of the assembly have done nothing except watch, unperturbed, as terrorists continued to reap a harvest of deaths, abductions, rape and destruction of valuable property across the country. The Boko Haram insurgency assumed a more dangerous dimension, thereby prompting reactions from governors of the 36 states and many Nigerians across the country, irrespective of party affiliation. More self-determination groups have sprung up and called for secession, yet our lawmakers have chosen to remain silent. Only a few have dared to kick against such calls, while the majority feel less concerned.

To members of the Ninth National Assembly, party loyalty seems to be more important than the interests of millions of Nigerians who elected them. This was demonstrated recently by Senator Remi Tinubu, representing Lagos Central Senatorial District, during an emotional presentation by Senator Smart Adeyemi, representing Kogi West Senatorial District, on the worsening insecurity in the country.

Our position is that the Ninth National Assembly has failed the country at the time the country needed it most. We wish to remind the federal legislature that enacting good laws to guide the country’s economic and social development is its duty, just as the interest of the electorate should be paramount to it.

It is also the expected duty of the legislature in any democracy in the world to serve as a watchdog whose main objective should be to whittle down the excesses of the executive. But what Nigerians have witnessed in the past two years is the shoddy and haphazard manner in which the assembly has conducted the screening of ministers and heads of statutory agencies and parastatals. This is evident in recent revelations on the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami’s past.

We urge members of the Ninth National Assembly to wake up now, shed the tag of a rubber stamp and stand firm on the side of the people. Nigerians expected them to put their feet down whenever they discover that the presidency is not living up to expectation. Their duty is to put the executive on their toes and guide them to fulfill the expectations of the people. This they must achieve in the next two years.

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