It is gravely portentous for the well-being of the Republic that the year 2018 which began with a gangster-like heist of the sacred Mace of the National Assembly ended with yet another inglorious incident in which legislators unashamedly put up an unprecedented show of infamy in which they rowdily and indecorously heckled and booed the President right inside the hallowed chambers of Parliament during the auspicious presidential constitutional ritual of budget presentation. The melodrama was a huge dent on our claim to a constitutional democracy; it was a sad testament for a year bygone and remains a looming danger even for this new one and more to come.
Such dastardly acts of legislative indiscretion and naked hooliganism, no doubt, constituted a “clear and present danger” ominously signaling a programmed demise of the Republic. It also offered a theatrical confirmation of the unfortunate fact that we have managed to elect people who, either by reason of their low personal capacity and general shortage of integrity, have turned out to be misfits for their privileged association with Parliament. It was an unbefitting horror-like Nollywood “command performance” by a legislative body charged with the onerous responsibility of making laws for the order and good government of the country, an unsophisticated prognosis of an incipient mobocracy.
By their wayward displays, they let down not only themselves collectively but also desecrating a time-honoured tradition that has seen other societies rise to greatness in terms of democratic governance in which Parliament is acknowledged as the most critical palladium for genuinely accountable democracies. Unless the legislature approves a fiscal request, i.e., through budget proposals, for example, no Kobo in the treasury can be lawfully spent. Watchers of the American political scene would already have noticed the fact that President Trump, with all his braggadocios about “Executive Powers”, has since discovered to his chagrin that without the support of Congress (National Assembly), he cannot achieve much.
For reasons of history and Conventions, parliamentarians universally enjoy what is known as Legislative Immunity. It is the liberty to say whatever they like while sitting in Parliament without the fear of legal repercussions. That unique privilege comes with the over-arching corresponding duty to always speak decorously. In reality, this has not always been possible as parliamentary proceedings are sometimes rowdy and tempestuous due to the diversity of its composition and the conflicting interests at play in political situation divided along ideological tribal lines but whenever things go that awry, there is always a price to pay by the culprits. That is the critical point of departure in contemporary Nigeria where the chambers of parliaments appear to be populated largely by hooligans and unrepentant anarchists who seem to perpetually revel in unguarded clownishness.
Sure, lawmakers are allowed, within the context of parliamentary immunity, to heckle and express their dissatisfactions when a President visits the Parliament but they must do so in an orderly and parliamentary manner (as in decency and comportment); some simply walk away or defiantly sit down quietly unfazed but it is never expected that such disagreements would degenerate into a mob-like riotous altercation as was strangely performed by our legislators. Those demeaning displays were probably intended to personally embarrass the President but the greater embarrassment actually went to the nation as a whole that watched their representatives turned their esteemed legislative privileges into a mobster’s tool for unhinged tomfoolery.
Ordinarily, parliamentary presiding officers are always able to bring the floor to order with the help of Mace-wielding Sargant-at-arms. Unfortunately, for Nigeria, judging by recent unbecoming incidents which the whole world witnessed, the leadership of the National Assembly were mischievously missing in action as they were unwilling to exercise their parliamentary disciplinary powers to avert the vivacious show of shame. Instead, they joined in the unruly rascality, indeed stupidity, which was put on display by their floor members who, like untamed kindergartens, raucously vented their displeasure with Mr. President who in turn calmly rebuked them by saying that the “whole world is watching”. Indeed, the whole world watched the indignant tumult, all to the embarrassment and humiliation of our democracy.
Ordinarily, private citizens carry placards to the galleries to protest against official acts and policies but it is unheard of that members of parliament would also be carrying poorly worded placards. Protesting to who? They seem to have forgotten that they are also a huge chunk of the government, if not the most influential arm. That orchestrated “Budget Show of Shame” demonstrated clearly that they are still trapped in their erstwhile mob mentality of Area Boys or “agberos” as they enthusiastically chanted expletives and anarchic “Alutas” endlessly, thereby validating Lord Acton’s famous dictum that “There is no greater heresy than the saying that the office sanctifies holder….” because a sucker will always remain a sucker even if he is fortuitously installed into the National Assembly.
In our constitutional scheme of separated powers, every department of government has its area of exclusive importance: e.g., the legislators hold the Purse of the nation while the President wields the extremely destructive Sword of the nation and he can swing it at any time and at any direction. My favourite illustration of this complex relationship in my Constitutional Law classes, is to say that the political kinetics of a sitting president is more than equal the aggregate energies of all the lowers offices under the Constitution combined because the votes tally that elects a president is more than the aggregate of all the votes that are required for all the lower elective offices under the Constitution.
Consequently, the options available to a self-centered President are many, ranging from the declaration of a state of emergency that would immediately neutralise the entire constitutional structure, to vetoing of legislative actions that he deems unacceptable, not to mention the unlimited power of patronage disbursement and, particularly in a society like ours where public institutions are still very weak, personalised and subservient, he can easily frustrate the political ambition of anyone. A President, unlike a Prime Minster in the Westminster system, may be unpopular, slow or even a “Lame Duck” but his operational tools within the Presidency, a gamut of the instrumentalities of State powers could do just anything to just anyone because of its near-absolute monopoly over State’s instruments of both coercion and appeasement.
I remember that I once warned the immediate post-military legislative term during those turbulent days of their internecine political battles with President Obasanjo through a piece I entitled “Is the President Really that Vulnerable?” Speaker Ghali Na’abba and co. eventually got their fingers burnt as many of them went into interminable political limbo; they should never have mistaken their constitutional checking and balancing oversights duties with those of infantile harassments and provocative insults of President Obasanjo because the political reach of an incensed President is far and grave. The only thing holding a President back under our overtly permissive constitutional order is the fear of God, public outcry and, possibly, electoral repercussions.
The most effective practical check on presidential powers, however, is the common understanding that all participants within the Trinity of State powers are operating within unwritten ethical boundaries as defined largely by the power of self-restraint. So, booing and heckling each other is constitutionally unhelpful. My fear is that we may all live to regret the negative aftermaths of these infantile inter-departmental tussles just like the spectators in the ancient Roman amphitheaters who cheered their gladiators to their deaths and by implication, cheered their Empire, to its ultimate ruination.
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