Dogara, Obaseki: Different strokes for the legislature

At first glance, the unique connection between Yakubu Dogara and Godwin Obaseki with the Nigerian legislature may not be readily obvious. The first is the Speaker of the House of Representatives which with the Senate constitutes the two Chambers of Nigeria’s National Assembly. The other is the newly elected Executive Governor of strategic Edo State […]

At first glance, the unique connection between Yakubu Dogara and Godwin Obaseki with the Nigerian legislature may not be readily obvious. The first is the Speaker of the House of Representatives which with the Senate constitutes the two Chambers of Nigeria’s National Assembly. The other is the newly elected Executive Governor of strategic Edo State of Nigeria. Yet two developments of the past few days placed them on the same page of sounding different strokes on the fortunes of the Nigerian legislative establishment. The first of them – Dogara is credited with a speech at an international forum, that remains topical in addressing the dwindling fortunes of the Nigerian legislature. Meanwhile the other – Obaseki, wilfully or otherwise, ended up with an initiative that has the potential of etching his name among the ranks of reducing agents, whose disposition towards the legislature is anything but robust. 

Last week Obaseki launched the process of reducing the work force of the Edo State House of Assembly (EDSHA) from 724 to a number yet to be determined. Claiming that a 724 staff strength was too much for a 24 member state assembly, Obaseki told journalists that his administration intends to prune the work force. In this period of strangulating economic circumstances nationwide, any attempt at reducing cost of doing business especially in government circles, cannot but be good news. This is especially so when the scope of wastage in government business through the ghost worker syndrome remains apocalyptically high. Yet when such a cost-cutting measure is driven by factors with questionable justification, the picture becomes different. 

Viewed against the unfortunately widespread view that Nigeria’s legislative houses are mere talk shops which are bereft of significant dividends, Obaseki’s intention to downsize the staff complement of the EDSHA may attract support from uninformed quarters, especially those who have an axe to grind with legislators and the institution. Hence the various singsongs on how to reduce the size as well as whittle down their statutory functions and relevance of the legislative establishment nationwide. Since the return of democracy and by implication the legislature in the Nigerian political firmament, this arm of government has been at the receiving end of sundry vituperations from sections of the Nigerian public, even as most attacks are spawned by sheer ignorance of the undisputable primacy of the legislature in the practice of democracy. 

In the same vein, across the states in Nigeria, the governors habitually strive to keep the legislature under control through the manipulation of the latter’s largesse as well as operational capacity. In that context it is tempting to see the Obaseki intention to reduce the staff strength of the EDSHA as him playing out a script to cage the House, early in the day.  Yet he resumed office only on November 12th 2016, in a state with myriad problems associated with lack of consensus on several burning matters of the day. Given the prospects of the state legislature for building consensus around his agenda,  would it not have been better if he engaged that institution more creatively to drive his policies through, instead  of starting an obvious war, which will drag in interests such as labour and others against him? 

The suspicion surrounding his agenda is accentuated by the very reason he gave for the exercise as being a mismatch between financial statistics. As an accomplished finance management expert, it should not be surprising that what matters to him most is the regime of costs, financial ratios and economic waste. However he should not forget that political dispensations do not always comply with the cold play-out of accounting parameters. Besides, he has just sworn in a new seven member Edo State House of Assembly Service Commission (EDSHASC), with Chairman as Honourable Raphael Okhani. Given his avowed commitment to due process, Obaseki’s take should have been guided by the advice of the EDSHASC after it must have done a thorough needs assessment exercise of the establishment. It is sincerely hoped that the Okhani led ESHASC will not be stampeded by the governor’s take on the ‘over-bloated’ staff complement of the state assembly, and take precipitate action that will trim the staff strength unrealistically, thereby rendering  the House incapacitated.

 Meanwhile, soon after Obaseki’s assault on the EDSHA, Yakubu Dogara launched what easily qualifies as a manifesto for the Nigerian legislative establishment. In his address to the 16th Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Africa Zone, he highlighted at least one critical area which African, nay Nigerian legislatures need to address their focus on, if they will make positive impact on their societies. And that is the issue of networking among legislative houses. 

He had built his prognosis on the pristine disposition of the African society for political power to be vested on individuals instead of institutions. According to him “We have been told that Africa does not need strong men but strong institutions. Unfortunately, Africa has been home to strong men who paradoxically relished in building weak institutions to keep them stronger. Yet all of Africa’s problems be they corruption, socio-political, economic, etc, can only be solved by strong institutions”. Dogara then went further to argue that only the legislatures on the continent can change the picture and do so by building networks among themselves.  

Dogara’s homily could not have come at a more auspicious time than now for Nigerian legislatures when the Constitution Review exercise by the National Assembly has progressed to the point of transmitting its resolutions to the State houses of Assembly for concurrence or otherwise. Against the background of the painful losses by the country over the failure of previous state assemblies to pass critical clauses including that of fiscal autonomy for themselves, the National Assembly should go beyond mere lip-service to Dogara’s charge of networking, and actualise positive outcomes from the voting by state legislatures. As the apex legislature for the country which should call the shots, the National Assembly should deploy all resources at its disposal to facilitate a coordinated front with the state assemblies in seeing its resolutions succeed. After all if the State assemblies were enjoying statutory fiscal autonomy, Godwin Obaseki as Edo governor, would not have been pontificating on the internal running of  EDHA, as if it were a just a department of the Government House Benin.