The Credibility of Legislative Investigations

The National Assembly needs to streamline the procedure for the exercise of its investigative powers

The investigative power of the National Assembly embedded in its oversight function over the executive branch of government is again under scrutiny. Several citizens and groups are complaining that with some recent actions, the federal legislature might be overreaching itself. The latest complainant is the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has called for restraint from the National Assembly to avoid what is fast becoming an expensive distraction to the private sector, erosion of investor’s confidence and collateral damage to the economy. Citing the investigation by the joint committees of the Senate on Customs and Maritime Authority into an alleged N30 trillion revenue loss and missing 228 vessels, the chamber said the procedure adopted by the lawmakers was capable of adversely affecting the brand image of some of the private companies under enquiry.

Publishing names of corporate organisations in the media over unsubstantiated allegations, according to the chamber, “has considerable reputational cost and collateral damage to such companies” aside the weighty consequences such also bear on the brand equity of the organisations. The chamber also decried the frequency of summons to Abuja of otherwise busy chief executives who are based in Lagos to appear sometimes for frivolous issues and with the insistence by the lawmakers that there can be no representation.

The investigative power of the legislature is derived from Sections 88; 89; 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as part of the comprehensive efforts to institute a regime of checks and balances in governance with the primary objective being to assert transparency and accountability in the conduct of public affairs. We have no problem with this measure aimed at enthroning good governance in the country.

However, since 1999, the exercise of that power has been controversial, particularly so because of the tension that it keeps generating between the executive and the legislative arms of government. Ministers and heads of agencies have in the executive have at different times complained about the near harassment embedded in the several investigative summon from both chambers of the federal legislature, including over issues that ought to be handled by law enforcement agencies or, in the worst case scenario, administrative departments of the executive.

More exasperating is the steady trend of inconclusive investigations by the legislature even when a lot of energy, time and resources of both public and private citizens had been expended. This worrisome trend had given rise to the unfortunate and rife perception that the purpose of some of these investigations were far from being in public interest. A less charitable view was that they were no more than an instrument of shakedown and blackmail by the lawmakers.

There is no doubt that the legislative power of investigation to expose corruption and foster good governance is a desirable provision of the constitution, which every citizen must support and seek its enforcement. Indeed, the exercise of the power by the seventh Senate to investigate the fuel subsidy regime of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration exposed the massive scam that the intervention policy had become and its outcome saved the nation billions of naira afterwards. But like a couple of other well-intended provisions of the constitution, the investigative power of the legislature is subject to abuse, and, as we have seen in several cases, would appear to have been abused as many of our lawmakers tend to turn it into a weapon of settling personal or political scores.

It is therefore in order to avoid this abuse that we agree with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry that the power needs to be exercised with utmost discretion. In exercising its investigative power, the National Assembly must take into account the necessity for highest level of probity and integrity in the conduct of its hearings in such a way that no one is left in any doubt about its intention for public good.

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In exercising its investigative power, the National Assembly must take into account the necessity for highest level of probity and integrity in the conduct of its hearings in such a way that no one is left in any doubt about its intention for public good