Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, have lamented the misperception and misunderstanding of the nineth National Assembly by some Nigerians, who wrongly labelled it a rubber stamp parliament.
Lawan and Gbajabiamila said the nineth National Assembly actually performed better than five others before it since 1999 in terms of quality legislation and oversight.
They spoke separately at a welcome dinner organised for senators and members-elect for the 10th National Assembly by management of the National Assembly and the National Institute for Democratic and Legislative Studies (NILDS) in Abuja on Monday night.
Lawan and Gbajabiamila said good governance-driven performance of the nineth National Assembly stemmed from harmonious working relationship with the executive arm of government.
Lawan, in his speech, said in the area of legislation alone, as at July 2022, a total of 874 bills had been introduced at the stage of first reading, out of which 162 passed the third reading and 104 were concurred to by the House of Representatives and assented by the president.
The senate president said, “At the outset, the nineth Senate was mindful of the damaging effect of persistent conflict with the executive and the resultant impact on legislative activities. We were equally aware that a good working relationship is desirable and, indeed, imperative to achieve effective and efficient service delivery to the people.
“This approach to engaging with the executive has led to a misperception and misunderstanding, which has led many to tag the nineth National Assembly as a ‘rubber stamp’ assembly. Yet, our intention in preferring an engagement with the executive based on harmony and collaboration has been to better serve Nigeria by providing a safe atmosphere for national development.
“There is no doubt that this has proven to be beneficial to the people we represent. Compared to previous assemblies, the achievement of the nineth National Assembly in the area of law-making is attributable to harmonious executive-legislative relations, which, contrary to many expectations, need not be aggressive.”
Gbajabiamila, in his own speech, said some Nigerians, who labelled the nineth National Assembly rubber stamp one, got it wrong because the legislature was not set up to confront the executive but complement it for good governance.
The speaker stated, “Rubber stamp has become a romantic language in the context of its usage in Nigeria, a very wrong description of relationship between National Assembly and the executive within the last four years.”
He called on the federal lawmakers-elect for the 10th National Assembly to consolidate on the achievements of the nineth assembly, in making democratic governance more beneficial to Nigeria and Nigerians.
Gbajabiamila said, “Too many Nigerians are beginning to wonder if democracy is the right choice of governance and for democracy to meet legitimate expectations of the people, relevant institutions of government, must be made to function well.”
