Nigeria does not need a National Assembly as presently constituted! – Ugochukwu Nwaokoro
Hon Ugochukwu Nwaokoro, Former deputy Mayor of the City of Newark, New Jersey. USA provides key insights on much needed reforms in the NIgerian governmental structure.
The present wasteful and unsustainable Nigerian National Assembly has proven over the years, not to serve any meaningful purpose to the country and the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, other than to line the pockets of the Senators and the members of the House of Representatives occupying such positions. The National Assembly as presently constituted is an embarrassment and a disgrace to the Nigerian nation; it is a safe haven for ex-governors who have emptied and pillaged the treasuries of their states, it has become a place where failed and corrupt government contractors, fraudsters, shady and corrupt businessmen and women go to hide and to continue stealing. When they fail to bribe their way to totally stop investigations corrupt practices against them, these former government officials, especially the ex-governors, go to the senate in order to influence, avoid or delay the EFCC or ICPC investigations of the grafts they committed in their various states as governors. Why should Nigerians expect good bills and laws to come out of a National Assembly where most of the members are people of questionable characters, highly corrupt people who are facing charges before the EFCC and the ICPC? The present Nigerian National Assembly should be abolished in its entirety because, it works against governance, very expensive to run and unsustainable.
The law of nature states that one can only give you what he has; one cannot give you what he does not have. From the records and antecedents of most members of the Nigerian National Assembly, it is evidenced that they do not have it in them to do anything for good governance and for common good to benefits of all; they only know how to circumvent and corrupt the system for their personal gains. Why should Nigerians expect these members of the National Assembly to take actions to encourage citizens to exercise their rights to be vocal and outspoken in calling them out, exposing and condemning their past and present corrupt deeds and actions? To further proof this point is the introduction of a hate speech bill in the Nigerian senate with death penalty as punishment to those deemed and found guilty of hate speech. This hate speech bill shows how clueless, valueless, wasteful and operating in the dark ages that the Nigerian national Assembly is. What really defines hate speech to the point that it is a crime that warrants the death penalty? Speaking against evil, corrupt and unconstitutional actions of government officials is a hate speech whose punishment is death by hanging? I guess this excerpt from my book, written out of unshaken and unwavering love of a country, and the need to find solutions to our many self-inflicted problems, could also be deemed by them as a hate speech! Thank God we are no longer in the dark ages, no matter how bad Nigeria is or has become!
How long will Nigeria continue to practice this wasteful legislative system of government where members of the national legislative arm of government are alleged to receive the highest amount of salaries and allowances from their counterparts around the world with nothing to show for it? At least, there is no evidence to show that the Nigerian National Assembly is more efficient and effective than their counterparts from around the world to justify the huge pay checks/cheques the national legislators take home. How can a right thinking and serious-minded country justify and sustain the salaries, allowances and constituency funds that these Nigerian Senators and Members of the House of Representatives take home every month, year after year? By the way, the constituency funds are not accounted for, which creates the room for most of the legislators to use the funds as their personal salary increases. The ex-governor senators even double dip, as they shamelessly collect full pensions and allowances as former governors, while still being paid full salaries and allowances as senators. Imagine the amount of developments the salaries, allowances and constituency funds given to these legislators would create in our individual states!
Recently, some people have argued in favor of trimming down the Nigerian National Assembly, because it is too expensive to run and maintain. Even somebody from an unexpected quarter, Rochas Okorocha, recently suggested that the number of senators from each state should be reduced. As much as I agree with them that it is expensive to run the current Nigerian National Assembly, I differ with them on trimming it down to save cost. To me, it is beyond trimming down to save cost, the Nigerian National Assembly as constituted should be abolished in its entirety and replaced with what I call, “The House of Speakers”. My proposed House of Speakers will be a unicameral National Assembly, with all the speakers of the various State Assemblies and Deputy Governors of all the States as members. These members of the House of Speakers do not have to have residences in Abuja, they will only be in Abuja when there are bills to deliberate on. The leadership of the House of Speakers would rotate every quarter or every six months, giving each state an opportunity to lead, irrespective of party affiliations or the party in the majority. Only speakers of various state assemblies would be allowed to vie for leadership positions, the deputy governors will only and always be members with debate and voting rights just like the Speakers, the only difference is that they will never become Head Speaker, President or Chairman of the House of Speakers as deputy governors.
Both the speakers of the state assemblies and the deputy governors will not earn extra salaries or allowances for being members of the House of Speakers, they will only be given stipends when they are in Abuja, all their other expenses, including transportation, accommodation, feeding, security, etc., would be covered by their states’ liaison offices in Abuja through a special fund that would be funded from the money that would have been part of the expenses of the abolished current National Assembly. Each state would have a permanent legislative staff that will be based in the national capital, assisting and working for the speakers.
Imagine how much money Nigeria would save if a system like the House of Speakers is introduced and adopted to replace the current Nigeria National Assembly! Think about how sound and serious the bills to be debated in the House of Speakers would be, something like unwarranted hate speech bill will not even be looked at, because, once a bill is introduced in the new House of Speakers, the individual speakers would share it with the members of their state assemblies, while the deputy governors will share it with their governors and the state executive councils and each would make their contributions. The speakers would articulate the views and opinions and take them to Abuja representing all; it will be a more involving, more collective and more grassroot type of bill that would be debated on the floor and subsequently passed into law after the presidents signs it.
The proposed House of Speakers would not harbor or hide unqualified individuals as legislators who do not even know the job and functions of a legislator, let alone know the process of introducing bills in the legislature. Most importantly, the new House of Speakers would not serve as a safe haven for corrupt and failed politicians, especially ex-governors, and will not have any room for shady and criminally minded businesspeople and failed government contractors, rather it would expose them. People facing EFCC or ICPC charges would not make it to the House of Speakers, and those who want to be in government to make money instead of to serve, will not find the House of Speakers attractive, because there will not be any more money to grab or steal.
I know by now some of us are wondering what all the money saved from abolishing the current National Assembly would be used for. Some would say, if the saved money goes to the states that will be more money for the governors and state officials to abuse, while others would say if it goes to the federal government it will be more money for the people at the federal government to abuse. I would say to all those people that the money would not go to either the states or to the federal government. Rather, a special structure will be setup where every state is allotted the same collective salaries, allowances and constituency funds that all the members of the state in the National Assembly are currently getting then use the money for specific infrastructural development in the state. Imagine the amount of developments that would be happening in every state, each month from these monies. Now, multiply that every quarter and every year, and then, further imagine the value that would be added to each state every year from these monies. Imagine the schools, roads, hospitals, markets, etc., that could be built, then imagine the direct and indirect jobs that would be created.
I am sure there are individuals that are now asking, where in the world has a system like this worked before? To those people, who think that something must have to have worked somewhere else before Nigeria can copy and use, I say, where in the world is another Nigeria? Why must Nigeria wait for something to be perfected elsewhere before we copy? What happened to being original based on your uniqueness, peculiarities, complexities and overall circumstances? I remember in those days when Nigerian bankers were not allowed to work in the banks wearing their native attires, it had to be in European attire, minimum of a shirt and tie, and for the supervisors, it had to be in a suit and a tie. Under the Nigeria sun and heat, people were in suit and tie waiting for taxi or bus, climbing molue buses very uncomfortable. Now, all that has changed, because we are better educated and informed, now Nigerians know corporate native attires, we are now comfortable dressed in native attires working in the banks. The bankers that still dress up in European suits now do it out of choice, because, they drive their own cars with air conditioners with offices that equally have better and functioning air conditioners. On the same note, I am still baffled when I see Nigerian lawyers and judges still in their wigs and gowns working in the Nigerian heat dripping with sweat and very uncomfortable, yet they still continue to dress that way without complaining, just to appear “Learned”. What an irony, one would think that if you are learned and educated you would make better decisions about self-realization, your identity and even your own comfort.
It is about time that we as Nigerians started to think outside the box simply by applying common sense to abandon those practices which the colonialists forced on us to adopt or those practices we adopted because we did not know any better or had any other option. Now, that we are freer, better informed and educated, there is no reason why we cannot think for ourselves based on our uniqueness, circumstances, peculiarities and complexities to device systems and policies that work for us instead of copying from others. The circumstances of those we copy from are uniquely their own, and so are the circumstances of Nigeria are uniquely Nigerian. There is no such thing as a perfect system to copy when that system is not formulated based on your uniqueness and circumstances. If you copy a system you must reformat it to reflect your circumstances and uniqueness. Part of the problems prevalent in Nigeria today are as a result of the systems that Nigeria has copied and has continued to practice over these years without being re-formatted to reflect the uniqueness and circumstances of Nigeria. Even the system copied is very dynamic as it continues to evolve based on present and future uniqueness and circumstances. Must one always wait for a system that is copied to change before instituting one’s own changes? If you look at American democracy in 1776 and the practice of it then, and that of 2020; you would see that there are stark differences based on different era uniqueness and circumstances. The American politicians in 1776 would be so shocked on how Democrats, Donald Trump and the Republicans are practicing democracy these days.
The current Nigerian National Assembly is one of those copied systems that must be abolished to reflect the composition, uniqueness and circumstances of Nigeria, it is an experiment whose era has come and gone, it has outlived its usefulness, it is very expensive, inefficient, ineffective and unsustainable. If we are to be sincere and tell ourselves the truth, there is no doubt that the Nigerian National Assembly as presently constituted should not be abolished completely and be replaced with something more sustainable, more effective and more involving of the grassroot and help to create better laws for common good of all, a new national legislature that I call “the House of Speakers.
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An excerpt from soon to be published book titled, “Living in Self Inflicted Bondage, the Nigerian Experience” By: Ugochukwu Nwaokoro
Ugochukwu Nwaokoro was a Deputy Mayor of the City Of Newark, New Jersey. USA. He has hosted and/or participated in many fora and Projects focused mainly on the improvement of living and governance standards of and for the people of Africa’s Homeland and the diaspora. His upcoming book, “Living in Self Inflicted Bondage, the Nigerian Experience” is a big eye opener and would perhaps, someday, serve as the “Bible of Governmental Re-Organization” all across Africa and beyond as it shares different ingenious ideas to help improve governmental structures and governance among various ailing African governmental set ups.
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