One notorious
image the National Assembly managed to carve for itself over the years is that
of a corrupt and indolent institution. It is a perception which actually is far
from
reality.
It is the
belief of not few Nigerians that the National Assembly as an arm of government
is nothing but a cesspool of corruption populated by fat cats politicians that
have no positive impact on the country other than earning huge salaries and
allowances to the detriment of the nation’s economy and its citizens. The
negative perception is not only limited to the lawmakers as the staff of the
National Assembly too share in the same not too palatable public criticism.
Reasons for such false assumptions are not far fetched. It was borne out from
among other things the lack of adequate knowledge and awareness of the role and
importance of legislature in democratic setting, and the reported financial scandals
that were perceived to be the hallmark of the institution. Also, the executive
in order to keep the National Assembly down and ensure it is unable to
effectively oversight or checkmate the other arms has deliberately created that
public perception and nurture it consistently.
This was the
scenario when the present leadership of the National Assembly under the
chairmanship of the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki mounted the
saddle of leadership on June 9, 2015. However, since his inauguration, Saraki has left no one in
doubt about his resolve to change the negative perception against the
legislature through introduction of various reform programmes and initiatives.
The reforms as
outlined by Saraki from onset were targeted towards increasing the relevance of
the legislature to the people by focusing on issues and subjects aimed at
improving the standard of living of the people. This he hoped to do by
improving on the capability and capacity of the lawmakers, their aides and the
management staff for optimal productivity in law making business. Another target is controlling and curbing
wastages and leakages in spending the resources of the National Assembly and
ensuring value for money in all its undertakings. Also targeted was the provision and
maintenance of new and existing equipment and infrastructure to ensure
conducive working environment for both lawmakers, aides and staff. Below are some of the operational and structural changes that have been introduced
in the last 20 months.
*Resumption Time For Plenary
Though the resumption time
for the Senate was officially slated for 10am from the beginning of the Fourth
Republic in 1999, the arrangement was in the past observed mostly in breach. It
was almost a tradition for the Senate to always reconvene much behind the
scheduled time and adjourned at 2pm as provided by the Senate Rules. This
leaves little rooms for attending to so many issues of national concern begging
for legislative attention. The trend made the past Senate to lose much time
needed for legislative sittings, thus achieving little at the end of the
legislative session. The current Senate, largely due to the reformist posture
of its President has made the 10am sitting time almost sacrosanct and that has
enabled it to achieve a lot in about two years. Also, very often the Senate
extends sitting till late as 4.pm. *Engagement With CSOs on 2016 Budget In
February 2016, the Senate, for the first time in history convened interactive
session with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to rub minds on the 2016 budget
presented by President Muhammadu Buhari. Giving reasons for the interactive
session, Saraki noted that, “Nigeria has come a long way since our return to
democracy in 1999. Undoubtedly, this road
has been full of challenges. Consequently, our task as your representatives in
government is to work towards the actualization of a more effective federal
system of governance. “A close examination of the budgets of the past 16 years
shows that the ineffective implementation and abandonment of projects have
caused excessive wastages that have negatively buckled the Nigerian
economy. In response to this, the
National Assembly has stepped up its oversight functions to ensure that funds
are spent ‘how’, ‘where’ and on ‘what’ they were earmarked for. This is not only an opportunity for you to
air your views, it is also a window that has presented itself that will allow
all of us to work together to pass a budget that we can all be proud of.”
With
this engagement with CSOs, the Senate under Saraki is broadening participation
in the process of budget preparation and seeking assistance from
non-governmental organisations and specialised bodies towards improving on the
process. Public Hearing on 2017 Budget
Perhaps, the most noticeable reform of
legislative process is the innovation
of organising a public hearing on the 2017 budget. It is obviously an
improvement on last year’s engagement with the CSOs. For the first time in the history of budget
passage, stakeholders, Civil Society Organisations and individuals were given
opportunity to make an input into the budget. Saraki, at the event organised
jointly by the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Appropriation
said the state of the economy has put more pressure on the legislature to
ensure a very credible budget process capable of taking Nigeria out of
recession. Noting that Nigeria is at a
crucial stage in her national development, the Senate President stated that the
poor state of the economy is deserving of a credible budget that could
stimulate real economic activities, fix critical infrastructure and provide
cushion for the poor and vulnerable. “The challenge, however, is how best to
ensure that the budget is utilised as an effective policy in achieving
these. It is my belief that the public
budget, if well-crafted and implemented, remains the most potent fiscal policy
instrument of government in delivering socio-economic benefits in an
all-inclusive manner. “It is, therefore, in line with this belief that the 8th
National Assembly deemed it necessary to bring Government, Civil Society
Organisations, Private Sector, and other key actors in the economy to
deliberate on the Budget proposal.” Expressing the Senate assurance of its
commitment to consider submissions at the 3-day hearing, the Chairman of the
Committee on Appropriations, Sen. Danjuma Goje said the submissions of the
stakeholders were very germane to tackling the current economic challenges in
the country, including recession. Goje said the committee would write a report
from 44 submissions made by no fewer than 60 stakeholders, adding that, “the
objective of this hearing is to produce a budget by Nigerians and for
Nigerians.”
*Setting Up Of Senate Compliance Committee
As part of its reform
agenda, the Senate recently set up a committee to ensure compliance with its
resolutions and also to monitor and evaluate the performance of its standing
committees as a means of self appraisal to ensure productivity. While
inaugurating the committee, the Senate President charged it with the task of
guiding the Senate as its monitoring and evaluation desk in order to restore
and sustain the integrity of the legislative institution whenever it acts and
guarantee that its resolutions were not blatantly abused. “This is critical in order to maintain
internal cohesion and external respectability, orderliness and progress in the
activities of the Senate,” he said. Giving an inkling of what to expect from
the committee, the chairman, Senator Babajide Omoworare (APC, Osun), said “the
committee will ensure that adequate measures are put in place to guarantee
implementation of National Assembly resolutions and other sundry issues by all
government agencies.” The Senate, Omoworare said, has identified the need to
constitute the committee in a bid to resolve “one of the most debated issues
confronting the National Assembly since the return to democratic rule in 1999,
which is the implementation of resolutions of the legislature by the Executive
arm of government. It is in avowed
determination to ensure that this matter is promptly and adequately handled
that the Senate created the committee,” the lawmaker added.
*Audit of NASS
Staff
To verify the skills, efficiency and
motivation of the management staff, Saraki in January directed the
management of the National Assembly to carry out a holistic audit of the human
resource in the National Assembly. In a letter to the Clerk of the National
Assembly, Mohammed Sani-Omolori, and signed by his former Chief of Staff, Sen
Isa Galaudu, Saraki said the current challenge facing the National Assembly is
the right workforce, hence the need for the assessment. “We have made
commendable strides in our continuous endeavor to attain the goals set out in
the Legislative Agenda of the 8th National Assembly. We, however, must continue
to deploy clear strategies that meet the challenges facing this institution and
capitalize on the strengths that we possess.
Even the best strategy will ultimately fail without the right people in
the right places to execute it. Thus, it has become apparent that at this
juncture one of the true challenges of the National Assembly is human capital.
“Expected outcome of this engagement is a detailed assessment of the nominal
roll, succession plan and furthermore to identify possible vacancies,
duplications, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, limitations, and
developmental needs of the existing organizational structure of the National
Assembly. The audit exercise has already
begun as directed by the Senate President.
*Tour of National Assembly Facility
Barely three months into office, the Senate President embarked on a
familiarisation tour of all National Assembly facilities scattered around
Abuja. It was during the visit that
Saraki discovered an abandoned National Assembly Television (NASS TV) studio
worth over N500 million. Promising to investigate factors that contributed to
abandonment of the project which is located inside National Assembly Premises
and to ensure the facilities are put to use immediately, he said, “I was told up to 500 Million Naira was spent
on it. We will look into it to find out the true situation of things .” Walking
the talk, the TV facilities are already being utilised for live streaming of
plenary sitting and key committee assignments. Also, preparations are already
at final stages for the television station to commence operations. The
familiarisation tour afforded the Senate President and the principal officers
of the Senate the opportunity to have first hand and on-the-spot assessment of
the environment for good understanding of issues and challenges being faced by
the staff and management of the National Assembly. There are many instances of
the reforms in the National Assembly which space constraints will not allow me
to mention. From the championing of the debate on the economy following
official declaration that the nation was in recession to the gradual
implementation of the e-parliament concept ( electronic voting in chamber now
possible, details of plenary sitting are now available online as they occur
while plans are afoot to load committee report, pending and passed bills on the
Internet) as well as plan to make open details of the Budget of the National
Assembly.
Isa is a Special Assistant to
the Senate President on Public Affairs
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