A slothful, wasteful 7th National Assembly

But there’s a problem; like the National Assembly’s merry-go-round in the wasteful and ultimately futile exercise at amendments to the Constitution, yesterday’s breakneck speed session may go the same way. With a new administration in place and the incoming National Assembly to be proclaimed into session next week, it is doubtful if both would share […]

But there’s a problem; like the National Assembly’s merry-go-round in the wasteful and ultimately futile exercise at amendments to the Constitution, yesterday’s breakneck speed session may go the same way. With a new administration in place and the incoming National Assembly to be proclaimed into session next week, it is doubtful if both would share the philosophical underpinnings of these pieces of legislation sufficient enough to allow them stand without modifications.  
Yesterday’s session was the last for the 7th Senate, which was inaugurated on June 6, 2011. The bills that were hurriedly passed without debate, over the objection of many Senators, were part of such pieces of legislation that awaited their action for years. Analysis of the Bills Progression Chart of the 7th Senate indicates that a total of 591 bills were introduced in the upper legislative chamber between June 6, 2011 and May 22, 2015. It is a mark of the slothfulness of the Senate that in the years before yesterday, they passed only 67 of the bills in the average 724 days they are constitutionally required to sit.
This gross dereliction of duty is a betrayal of the mandate of the Nigerian electorate and the taxpayers that sustain the legislators’ perks and peccadilloes at great cost to the nation. Of the pending bills that will now almost certainly lapse, some have only been read once while others that passed second reading were held up at committee levels. There are also other categories of bills and hundreds of resolutions passed by the Senate instituting investigations into many issues that were brought before the lawmakers and on which they had taken no action.
Of all the pending legislation, none received critical reviews and public sessions to debate its contents in the last six years as the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). It was considered so important to sanitising the petroleum industry in the country that it had to be presented again to the National Assembly by former President Goodluck Jonathan in June 2012. Apparently, the Senate didn’t think it that crucial, because the PIB was not among the rushed legislation. Another legislation that didn’t get the attention of the lawmakers is the National Frontier Basin Exploration Agency Establishment Bill intended to spearhead oil exploration in the Chad Basin, Benue Trough, Dahomey Basin and other frontier states.
 There are many other bills that are also critical, to which the lawmakers should have devoted their attention in the interest of the nation that paid them to do just that.
With the outstanding and unfinished business of the 7th Senate, and in some respects the House of Representatives as well, it was ridiculous of the members to have gone on a wild goose chase in the name of constitution amendment at the end of which nothing meaningful came out to justify the time and expense, and only making recommendations in which were embedded self-serving provisions that would ensure they continued to live at state expense in perpetuity and covered with immunity from prosecution.  It is ironical that while the lawmakers were always behind schedule in their legislative duties, they were very up-to-date in collecting the huge allowances that many of them do not deserve. If an employee fails to deliver on his contract with the employer, the latter reserves the right to withhold the employee’s benefits. The lawmakers have not delivered on the mandate that Nigerians gave them, to make laws for the good governance of the country. They should be required to pay for that dereliction.
  In 2012 and 2013, the Senators failed to sit for up to the required 181 days in a legislative year due to incessant adjournments and recesses. Besides, they barely formed quorum when they do sit. Even when they formed a quorum at the beginning of a sitting, it rarely maintained to the end of it. The 8th National Assembly should learn from this, and check absenteeism by publishing the names of its present, those away at oversight or committee meetings, and penalise culprits by denying them perquisites. Publicly accessible electronic of monitoring their sitting and voting sessions should be introduced, to replace the chorus of ‘ayes’ or ‘nays’ which is archaic, unscientific and susceptible to manipulation.  The country should not be made to pay because people don’t do the work they are being for.