N’Assembly too Weak to Curb Corruption, Wasteful Expenditure, Lawan, Bankole Lament

* Challenge Nigerians to beam searchlight on executive’s financial recklessness

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja 

Senate President Ahmad Lawan and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, have said that the legislature, in the three tiers of government, lack the powers to curb corruption and wasteful expenditure in government.

Lawan and Bankole spoke at the 2022 convocation ceremony of the Post Graduate and Higher National Diploma programmes of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, an affiliate of the University of Benin.

The Senate President at the event, held in Abuja Monday, regretted that Nigerians were beaming their searchlight on the National Assembly which was collecting less that one per cent of the national budget instead of asking questions which is controlling 99 per cent of the funds. 

He said: “The revelations about funds for the National Assembly and the budget of the other side of government are things that Nigerians know but ironically Nigerians don’t care about whatever happens to the 99 per cent of the budget. 

“All they care about is the one per cent being collected by the National Assembly. How does the one per cent influence our lives? We hardly know beyond people voting. I think the reality is the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended as it is today has left the legislature prostrate. 

“Prostrate because in section 88 (of the 1999 Constitution), it talks of the legislature exposing corruption, waste and embezzlement and so on. 

“So, when you expose something and you can’t do anything, how does that solve the problem? It is like seeing a thief and you say thief ! thief !! thief !!! and you can’t act as a police personnel to arrest the thief nor can you try and prosecute the person and the suspect goes away. 

“The legislature is really incapacitated. That is the fact because we can’t do anything. If you sign the warrant of arrest against someone and the person refused to appear before the National Assembly, nothing will happen because we have no police of our own in the National Assembly to send to go and arrest that person. 

“We have to go through the Inspector General of Police. Where does he belong? To the executive. There you are. And the IGP will have a choice. 

“If you ask him to send police to arrest somebody in the Ministry of Justice or any part of the executive, he will weigh it whether he will create problem for himself by obeying that warrant or at the end of the day if he doesn’t, there will be no consequences because we can hardly do anything. 

“It is for the people to insist and ask questions about what happens to 99 per cent of the budget? You can pile pressure on members of the National Assembly that they must do oversight, but when they carry out the oversight and revelations are made, you must insist on sanctions and insist in the right quarters.  

“Don’t say these members of the National Assembly they have said this has happened they can’t do anything. That would be the end of the story. 

“They have little to do at that point, the rest is yours, push, pile pressure until something is done. And we can do it. The National Assembly has never been favoured in the political evolution of Nigeria. Never!”

Lawan said that the Nigerian legislature is endangered and incapacitated, adding that the framers of the Nigerian constitution did not do it deliberately. 

“If someone could be jailed for four months in the USA because he refused to turn up having been subpoenaed, that cannot happen in Nigeria. It can’t happen because if somebody refuses to turn up who will jail him?  

“Until the people are mobilised to stand for democracy, not against the legislature, because each time they will say if you want to revamp the Nigerian economy reduce the budget of the National Assembly. 

“In the 2022 budget, we have just 0.8 per cent of the national budget. How does that revamp the economy? But people will always talk about the National Assembly. Once I said that the budget of the National Assembly is the budget to develop democracy in Nigeria but I was misquoted by the media.  

“How much does a committee of the National Assembly get? One million naira. How can N1 million help a committee conduct thorough investigation and deep oversight? It is difficult. 

“However, if we say that in 2023 we are going to add to the budget of the National Assembly to cater for better oversight, people will say no, that the National Assembly already has too much money. In fact, there is no money in the National Assembly. Those of you who work in the National Assembly know,” he said.

He also lamented that the high rate of turnover was affecting the quality of legislative exercises of the parliament. 

“The turnover is a big issue of development of democracy in Nigeria. Because you weed people who you have already trained, who you need little to train further and you bring in fresh set of people. 

“You now have to spend more resources, that are not there. If you don’t, they won’t know what to do. In some cases, some people are happy that members of the National Assembly should continue to be ignorant of most of what happens in our agencies of government.

“Thank God, most of the people who come to the National Assembly today are people of great experience in many spheres of life. But the chopping off of heads continues and because of the nature of politics that we have here in Nigeria, I think the ‘chopping off’ will continue until the people decide enough is enough,” Lawan said.

Bankole, who delivered a lecture titled ‘Legislative Turnover and Effects on Institution Building and National Development’, noted with concern that the executive arm of government had not done anything to reduce the cost of governance despite efforts being made by the legislature at the national, state and local council levels.

He said the National Assembly’s budget had reduced from one per cent in 1999 to 0.8 per cent in 2022 whereas the remaining 99 per cent, being controlled by the executive, remained the same with the huge sum going to overhead and the recurrent expenditure.

He said the nation’s economy may continue to suffer the necessary growth and development if the situation persists because funds needed to create jobs and infrastructure were being wasted on running an overbloated cost of governance. 

He said the nation’s budgetary system which made the executive to control the 99 per cent of the yearly budget was encouraging corruption and economic sabotage.

Bankole lamented that the nation’s legislative institution that was supposed to act as a check against wastes in government expenditures was being grossly underfunded, hence its inability to expose corruption and saboteurs through efficient and aggressive oversight.

He said: “The figures of the national budget are going up but the capacity to create jobs is decreasing.

“Between 2011 and 2021, the overhead, that is, the cost of running government has been going up and the size of the civil service has not doubled.

“Why is the cost of governance going up when the size of the civil service is not increasing?

“Federal agencies even generate money and begin to spend it. When the National Assembly asks questions, they will not honour such invitation.”

He also blamed the electorate for not turning out enmasse to vote highly experienced lawmakers during the general election.

The former Speaker said the development had led to a huge rate of turnover in the National Assembly, making it to suffer a great loss of institutional memory.

On the economic sabotage, especially in the oil and gas sector, which is the main stay of the nation’s economy, Bankole accused those in government as the perpetrators.

The Director General of NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, said 87 candidates who had been certified in both character and learning by the authorities of NILDS and University of Benin graduated on the occasion. 

He said 30 candidates successfully completed their Master’s Degree in Legislative Studies, eight in Master’s Degree in Legislative Drafting, 19 in Master’s Degree in Parliamentary Administration, 13 in Master’s Degree in Elections and Party Politics and 11 in PGD in Political Party Management. 

The Higher National Diploma (HND) in official reporting, he said, had six candidates.

He said a greater percentage of the enrolees in the programmes are from the National Assembly. These included legislators, legislative staff serving in various capacities (including committee clerks and staff, research staff, chamber staff and drafters), as well as legislative aides.