The House of Representatives recently opened its doors to the public for the third annual Open Week of the 10th House, a platform for the leadership to give account of its stewardship since the inauguration of the chamber on June 13, 2023 and receive feedback from constituents on its activities over the past three years.
Importantly, the event gave the House an opportunity to build a national consensus on key bills before the parliament, as part of the ongoing process to review the 1999 Constitution (as amended). These include the state police bill which seeks to amend the constitution to create a legal framework for states to set up their own police force, and the special seats bill which is aimed at creating reserved seats for women in the National and State legislatures.
Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, setting the tone for the three day event, said the Open Week, now an annual ritual in the Green Chamber, was basically intended to subject the House to scrutiny by the very members of the public it serves.
The initiative, he said, was conceived not as an exercise in self congratulation but as an act of accountability, for openness is not a courtesy the House extends at its pleasure but an obligation it owes to those it represents. In opening its doors, he said, the House affirms one enduring principle, that the making of the people’s laws remains their concern, and that they are entitled to observe it, interrogate it and help shape it. “No other arm of government submits itself to public examination in quite the same manner. The House does so with conviction rather than reluctance,” he added.
Abbas said a total of 2,747 bills were introduced in the House in the last three years, out of which 363 bills were passed while 72 bills have been assented to by the president, the highest number recorded by any assembly since the return of democratic governance in 1999.
Among the most impactful pieces of legislation, he said, were the National Education Loan Fund Act, the acts establishing various development commissions and a raft of tax reforms, alongside no fewer than 220 motions passed during the same period, many of them addressing the country’s pressing security challenges.
One of these laws, he said, now provides interest-free student loans to young Nigerians so that no student is turned away from a lecture hall for want of means; another has reformed the way the nation raises and shares its revenue; others have set up commissions to carry development into every region of the federation. In addition to these landmark statutes, he said, over 800 citizens have petitioned the House, and hundreds of those cases have already been resolved.
The Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre’s Executive Director, Clement Nwankwo, largely agrees that the House has done a good job since its inauguration, but says its work is not yet done.
He said the 10th National Assembly was now in its third year of office and it is appropriate to reflect on its achievements and the tasks still outstanding. He commended the Assembly for showing commitment in a number of important areas, including the ongoing constitutional review process, efforts to modernise legislative procedures, consideration of key electoral and governance reforms, increased use of digital platforms and greater engagement with citizens and civil society, while displaying resilience in responding to emerging national challenges and maintaining a broadly stable legislative environment.
At the same time, he argued, citizens rightfully expect more from their legislature: stronger, more independent oversight of the executive, more timely consideration of critical national issues, more transparency in legislative business, more public participation in law making and reforms that directly improve governance, security, economic opportunity and social justice.
In a goodwill message at the Open Week, the Catholic Bishop Emeritus of the Abuja Diocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, insisted that lawmakers must represent the people effectively and serve as a check on the executive, stressing that parliament cannot abdicate its role in a democracy. He said the legislature is the heart of the three arms of a democratic government, the executive and the judiciary. “If democracy is indeed a government of the people, by the people, for the people, then the legislature is that people and cannot abdicate its popular role, nor betray the sacred trust placed in it.
As Nwankwo said, observers believe that citizens expect quite a lot from the House as it enters its final session, particularly on the review of the 1999 Constitution. There is a strong hope that the Green Chamber will pass the Special Seats Bill, which intends to create special seats for women in the National and State assemblies to ensure inclusive governance, along with other constitutional amendment bills to strengthen governance across the country.
The House was clearly conscious of these expectations, and Open Week was used to further galvanise support for the Special Seats Bill and wider security reforms and to develop new partnerships with the business community in pursuit of more robust, economy oriented legislation. At its interaction with the business leaders under the auspices of the National Assembly and Business Executive Roundtable, the House suggested institutionalising the roundtable so that regular interaction with business community would help bridge the gap between legislative intervention and economic reality.
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During a National Dialogue on the Special Seats Bill, the House came up with a model of an electoral college for electing women to the proposed special seats, which should make the process less cumbersome for women and the country at large. The model is being touted as a fresh initiative that could help secure the bill’s passage in the present assembly. Policy and governance expert John Mutu, who gave an overview of the proposed model, explained that women would get these parliamentary seats through indirect election by office holders already elected at the local, state and federal levels within each special constituency. He conceded that the electoral college model is foreign to Nigeria’s political tradition and presents obvious challenges of implementation, but contended that it nevertheless offers a practical vehicle for actualising the strategic objectives underlying the Special Seats initiative.
The Speaker also used the dialogue session on security to dispel lingering fears around the setting up of state police. The House has been at the forefront of efforts to amend the 1999 Constitution to create a legal basis for decentralising policing, allowing interested states to set up their own forces as part of broader efforts to tackle insecurity.
But there are still worries that state governors might abuse state police, and questions over funding. However, Abbas insisted that the authors of the State Police Bill had foreseen these likely challenges and built in adequate safeguards, adding that the country must learn from the experience of others including Germany and Canada. He explained that the National Minimum Standards Act had to be in place before any state police force issued its first directive so that standards preceded structures and that implementation should proceed step by step, state by state, rather than switching on thirty six new forces at the same time. But the question of funding has to be addressed from the beginning, he added. Whether it’s a dedicated policing fund, shared services or federal support tied firmly to standards, he said, no state should create a police force it cannot pay for, and no unpaid officer should become a threat to the very citizens they have sworn to protect.
