THE National Assembly is a major arm in a democratic dispensation. Indeed, there are three arms of government as we all know. The Executive which is headed by the president, the legislative headed by the Senate President and the Speaker respectively and lastly, the judiciary, which expectedly is headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). The two arms of government, while maintaining their independence are expected to work with the executive and are to act or function as check and balance to the executive.
When the executive is overreaching itself, the two other arms are supposed to bring it back. But are these two other arms of government doing this? My focus here is on the legislative arm at the national level.
I have often wondered whether the National Assembly members or simply our lawmakers have any sense of purpose or the crucial nature of the job for which they were elected. Without being overly simplistic, lawmaking is just one of their roles in making this country a better place for all the citizens. Their role is as equally important or even more important than the executive’s.
It is thus the reason I asked whether our lawmakers actually know the import of the task they have been saddled with. It is in realization of their importance in the democratic set up that they are independent of the executive. Indeed, the legislative arm determines the greatness or otherwise of any country.
It is what they have legislated on or the law/bills that they have passed that the executive works with.
One can even say they provide the template, through the constitution and the different bills they passed, with which the executive works. As the name implies, the executive arm is only there to execute what ever legislation that had been passed by the lawmakers.
I have gone through the above and stand the chance of being accused of being simplistic to detail the importance of the legislature in a democratic dispensation in order to x-ray the legislature and see whether they have been able to fulfill the role for which they were elected.
The other day a friend of mine who had just arrived from the US and wanted to start a cottage industry was lamenting the cost of doing business in Nigeria. He was especially unhappy at the high interest rates, which is in two digits, unlike what obtains from where he is coming from, being charged by banks from those desirous of taking bank facilities.
Why would our lawmakers not look into such high interest rate? My friend wanted to know. Today, the Central Bank of Nigeria, which is saddled with determining the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) , that is, interest the CBN charges the banks that borrow from it, has reduced its interest rate from 13 percent to 11 percent. It is a different thing when you go to the banks to take the facility. They charge from 20 to 25 percent.
I may be a financial illiterate but that does not mean that one does not know the implication of a high interest rate for borrowers both individual and corporate. With reduced interest rate, businesses would not be over burdened and would not be hard pressed to pass the resultant effect to consumers or the man on the street.
Our lawmakers, thankfully, have moved beyond taking care of personal interests, but a lot still has to be done. What stops the lawmakers from intervening on the issue of welfare package for the unemployed in the country. Why can’t they legislate on the matter?
One is not saying the National Assembly has been slumbering, at least one can still recollect that the Senate in June, last year passed 46 bills in ten minutes thus sidestepping the lawmaking procedures as well as the standing rules which stipulates that a bill must past through three phases – the first reading, second reading and third reading – before it can be passed. But that’s just by the way.
The argument here is just that the lawmakers should seize the moment and do something historical that Nigerians would always remember them for. And that ‘thing’ should positively affect all Nigerians and most especially the man on the street. This democratic journey began in 1999, today, we have the eight National Assembly. Can someone just mention what stands the previous assemblies out, I personally can’t recollect except the embarrassing debate about their remuneration.
SUN
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