The Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof Sulaiman Abubakar, has called for the amendment of the constitution to bar former governors from seeking elections into the National Assembly to avoid turning the Senate into a ‘retirement home’.
He also called for an upward review of the educational qualification for National Assembly legislators to first degree.
Abubakar made the call in a paper titled: “High turnover of lawmakers: impacts and way forward”, which he presented at the House of Representatives Press Corps Week yesterday in Abuja also blamed the high turnover in the National Assembly on governors who decide who to scale through primary elections. “Another possible intervention to stem the high turnover is legislative actions by way of amendment to our constitution.
This could be by prescribing more years for the legislative tenure or stemming the incursion of retired governors and other executives into eroding the independence of the legislature. “The legislature is too important to be the retirement home of governors and other executive bigwigs. All efforts must be put in place to change the trend”, he submitted.
Also speaking on the quality of legislation, the former minister of National Planning suggested that the minimum qualification for legislators should be raised to, at least, the first degree.
“Considering the complex nature of issues that the legislature must deal with ranging from education, health, social welfare to the environment and climate change as well as a host of other critical issues, a minimum of a university degree or its equivalent should be the entry qualification to the legislature at both the national and state levels.”
He said that the number of lawmakers that may not return to parliament in 2023 after the general election may be the highest since our return to democratic rule in 1999 as indicated by the outcome of the parties’ primaries across the country.
He said: “For example in Lagos State, 20 out of 40 lawmakers are not returning after the party primaries. Indeed records available to NILDS indicate that there are states where only five members won their primaries.” In a goodwill message at the occasion, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila also blamed state governors for the large turnover of legislators.
“The high turnover of legislators is largely due to the role of governors. And except we take this information to them, they would not know that Nigerians are watching all they are doing,” he said. Gbajabiamila, who was represented by the House Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Peter Akpatason, said: “We have a situation where governors want to do everything in Nigeria.
The same governors will want to choose ministers for the president; they will choose local government chairmen and local government funds are paid into state joint accounts, which the governors are in charge of.
They stop some lawmakers from returning not because of lack of capacity or incompetence but if you are loyal, you will be cut out.”
In his own contribution Spokesman of the House, Hon. Benjamin Kalu said that is an erroneous perception and rating of the performance of a legislator with the number of bills and motions sponsored by him or her by his constituents.
He called on the media practitioners to always endeavour to showcase and promote the legislator at their various committees and oversight legislative duties. In an address, the Clerk to the House of Representatives, Dr. Yahaya Danzaria said the last primaries for the 2023 general elections have brought up more questions than answers.
He commended the House Press Corps for organising the lecture promising that the bureaucracy will continue to provide an enabling environment for the media to report the parliament as it ought to be.
Resident representative of Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung in Nigeria, Marija Peran promised that the organisation will continue to train journalists saying legislative reporting was very essential in the sustenance of democracy.
“Legislature reporting, an essential part of mass media function, is a significant feature of a parliamentary democracy,” she stated.
Earlier in an address, the chairperson of the House of Representatives Press Corps, Ms. Grace Ike said that since the advent of democracy in 1999, the country has continued to witness a high turnover of lawmakers at every election cycle.
