N/Assembly Tasked On Electoral Act, Security Bills, Constitutional Review

The National Assembly has been urged to fast-track the enactment of the rejected Electoral Act Amendment Bill, legislation that seek to address the deteriorating security challenges in the country and provide the needed interventions that would tackle the socio-economic woes of Nigerians as the 2022 legislative session begins Tuesday.

The nation’s parliament has also been asked to accelerate the process of the review of the 1999 Constitution for which zonal public hearings were held last year, step up oversight of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), and ensure self transparency and accountability by making details of its budget public.

Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), and Christian Okeke, Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, made these suggestions while speaking to BusinessDay on the agenda for the National in 2022.

The National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives had embarked on Christmas and New Year break on December 21, the day President Muhamadu Buhari’s letter rejecting the Electoral Act Amendment Bill was read on the floor and is to resume plenary as well as other legislative activities on Tuesday, January 18, 2022.

Buhari had in the letter justified his withholding of assent to Bill on the “amendment of the present Section 87 of the Electoral Act, 2010 to delete the provision for the conduct of indirect primaries in the nomination of party candidates such that party candidates can henceforth only emerge through direct primaries”.

The President argued that the conduct of direct primaries across the 8,809 wards across the length and breadth of the country will lead to a significant spike in the cost of conducting primary elections by parties and increase the cost of monitoring such elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which has to deploy monitors across these wards each time a party is to conduct direct primaries for the presidential, gubernatorial and legislative posts.

“The addition of these costs with the already huge cost of conducting general elections will inevitably lead to a huge financial burden on both the political parties, lNEC, and the economy in general at a time of dwindling revenues.

“The indirect consequences or the issues of high cost and monetisation are that it will raise financial crimes and constitute further strain on the economy. It will also stifle smaller parties without the enormous resources required to mobilise all party members for the primaries. This is not healthy for the sustenance of multi-party democracy in Nigeria,” Buhari insisted.

Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives had in his address to mark the last plenary session of the year 2021, said the Green Chamber would take action on the returned bill when it resumes from Christmas and new year break in 2022.

Gbajabiamila had called on lawmakers not to “throw out the baby with the bathwater” with regards to the bill, saying:
“this year, despite the differences of opinions, all of us in the House of Representatives and indeed, the entire National Assembly, worked to pass the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.

“As it is now, that bill has not received presidential assent, and it falls to parliament to decide the best way forward. When we return in the new year, we will resume our efforts to reform the electoral system in our country. And we will do it together. That is what the Nigerian people expect of us, and we will do our duty for God and country.”

Apart from the Electoral Act, the Speaker mulled other areas of immediate concerns when the House resumes such as ensuring MDAs adhered strictly to the provisions of the Appropriation Act (Budget) and merging of some agencies, and scrapping other institutions to save cost in the face of dwindling revenue and review of the envelope system of budget.

“A recurring challenge is how best to ensure that the ministries, departments, and agencies of the Federal Government adhere strictly to the letter of the appropriation law. This is a subject of grave concern, especially now when we must contend with the reality of limited resources amid significant developmental challenges. Therefore, in the new year, the House of Representatives will explore further options for legislative action in this regard.

“During consideration of the 2022 Appropriation Bill, we were inundated with requests for funding from Ministries, departments, and agencies of government, all of whom require additional funding to effectively discharge their mandates. We recognise the genuine urgency of many of these requests and we have tried within the reality of limited revenues to meet the most critical needs.

“However, one thing that is now abundantly clear, is that the legislature needs to act to reform the envelope system currently in place because it imposes conditions that do not make for optimal outcomes. At the same time, we must begin also to consider options for merging agencies where there is a significant overlap in functions and responsibilities, and scrapping other institutions where their utility is no longer apparent,” he stated.

But setting the agenda for the National Assembly, Rafsanjani called on the legislature to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari fast-track assent into the Electoral Act Amendment Bill as a matter of democratic importance and national urgency.

“This includes prompt and targeted legislative action to address the concerns raised by the President and retransmission of the Bill for immediate assent. We on this note reiterate our position that the Bill is critical to upholding the nation’s electoral accountability, credibility, and integrity while restoring the democratic core values,” he said.

The CISLAC Executive Director also urged the National Assembly to prioritise legislative oversight and significant bills aimed at addressing the worsening insecurity in the country, saying; “we cannot conceal the dread impacts of rising insecurity in the country, giving the persistent killings, kidnappings, and attacks on innocent citizens by the armed groups.

He observed that: “Despite the exorbitant annual budgetary allocation to Defence, Security, and intelligence gathering, Nigerians have so far observed neither significant improvement in the nation’s security nor accountability of defence spending. Defence procurement and spending has hitherto been soaked in corruption and buried in secrecy, and this is enabled by inadequate oversight activities and a lack of appropriate sanction by the National Assembly. We demand extensive legislative oversight, review, and sanction of the defence procurement and budget.”

He called for the immediate legislative actions for the passage of “Explosives Bill, 2021 and Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons Bill, 2021; Armed Forces Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, Police Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Act, 2007 (Amendment) Bill 2021, and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act (Amendment) Bill 2021.”

The good legislature advocate further called on the National Assembly to revisit reports by various ad-hoc Committees on Constitutional Review, to address the current challenges and pursue reforms critical to the national socio-economic progress, unity, and development such as restructuring, gender and social inclusion, state police, and devolution of powers, robust electoral reforms, and financial autonomy.

“We call on the National Assembly to redeem its image and disclose details of its annual budget in the current year. The deliberate refusal by presiding officers of the Assembly to do so constitutes a total disregard and violation of the legislature’s commitments to budget transparency and accountability, as enshrined in its Legislative Agenda,” he noted.

On assets recovery, management, and accountability, Rafsanjani demanded the prompt passage of the Asset Recovery and Proceed on Crime Bills sent to the parliament by President Buhari since 2020 which sought to address the problem of lack of transparency and accountability associated with the management of recovered funds by anti-corruption agencies in the country.

On the other hand, Okeke suggested that the National Assembly should simply focus on the people and pull them out of the plague and harrowing experience which they pass through on daily basis through legislative inputs and hold the executive to account.

According to the Political Scientist, most Nigerians believe that the current National Assembly has not lived up to expectations in the areas of monitoring how the country is administered by the executive but the parliament can make up for its alleged failures from 2022 to 2023.

“The parliament has not made the executive to square up to issues of insecurity, corruption, poverty, unemployment, inflation, recklessness, and so forth. It has also not been able to enforce the application of the federal character principle in the country.

“The National Assembly has watched with less to no action as many Nigerians suffer untold hardship, go to bed daily on an empty stomach, lack access to adequate healthcare, electricity, safe drinking water, and jobs. Promises made were not kept, internally-displaced persons continue to languish at various camps.

“Today, terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, ritual killings, and other evil have taken over the geopolitical space. Many people believe that the ship of the country has drifted farther and quicker than ever imagined. Many citizens have lost hope in Project Nigeria.

“Now, parliamentarians as representatives of the people have not been able to hold the executive to account over all these malaise.
Democracy is about the people. The people are at the center of decision-making. But that appears to be in principle and not in practice in the country. On the other hand, Parliament is a major symbol of democracy. Yet it is unable to push the people to be at the center of governance,” he noted.