The present assembly, going by the profiles of its members, is arguably filled with the best trained and most highly skilled Nigerians in the history of the NASS. Both Lawan and Gbajabiamila, without any doubt, have acquired the necessary experience in le

The National Assembly in Nigeria, in line with bi-cameral legislature provided for by the 1999 Constitution, consists of the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives.

The two chambers were inaugurated on June 11, 2019 and the Ninth National Assembly marked its three years anniversary on June 11, 2022.

Led by the Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the Ninth Assembly has been credited with stable maturity because, unlike the previous assembly, it brought stability to the polity in the way that it has maintained cordial relationship with the Executive arm of government.

The present assembly, going by the profiles of its members, is arguably filled with the best trained and most highly skilled Nigerians in the history of the NASS. Both Lawan and Gbajabiamila, without any doubt, have acquired the necessary experience in legislative duties, having stayed for more than two terms in the Upper and Lower Chambers, respectively, before being saddled with the responsibility of leading the ninth assembly.

On resumption of duties after inauguration, Lawan and the entire leadership of the Ninth National Assembly have assumed that constructive engagements with the executive arm of government, particularly, the presidency, is the required approach for a resultsoriented relationship.

Perhaps talking about the rancorous relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly in the 8th National Assembly, Lawan in his inaugural speech three years ago emphasised the need for a shift in the working relationship between the legislature and the executive arm of government.

In the speech titled, A Senate that works for Nigerians, Lawan said: “We are going to work collaboratively with the executive arm of government to strengthen our planning and budget linkage that ensures effective service delivery and fulfilment of essential government obligations to the citizens, while taking care of the perennial delays in our annual appropriation bill passage and implementation.

“Within us as a Senate, our leadership will commit to partnership rather than partisanship and between us and the executive arm of government, we will choose unity of purpose over conflict and discord, while also working towards further strengthening and guarThis anteeing our independence and that of the judiciary…”.

The past three years saw Nigerians mounting pressure on the National Assembly to pass critical legislation to improve the country’s democracy.

The question we need to ask now is how has the parliament reacted to this, how has the parliament fared or put differently, how has the Ninth National Assembly fared in carrying out its legislative duties?

Nigerians are in unison that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which was signed into law early this year by President Muhammadu Buhari was one of the key legislative items passed with the intention to entrench democracy by reforming the electoral process.

Although the resort to electronic voting and the resignation of political appointees before contesting election threatened to derail the entire process, the clause of electronic transmission of results was eventually passed. However Section 84 sub section 12, which states that, “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election without resignation” became a matter of litigation in court. was also put to rest with the Supreme Court’s recent pronouncement which upheld the decision of the National Assembly.

The later amendment to section 84 Sub Section 8 to allow statutory delegates to vote in party primaries is also yet to be assented to by the President.

Many Nigerians have yearned for the passing of this critical bill, believing it can sanitise our electoral system and stem irregularities like reform to avoid underage voting, violence, cash for voting among others. So the passage is definitely a positive one for the Ninth National Assembly.

Speaking on this development, the Executive Director of NESSACTION, Eniola Cole, said, “I think the main contribution that the National Assembly has made in the last three years is in passing the New Electoral Act and that has enabled us to do much more than we can do as civil society organisations than in the past.

Cole also said that civil society organisations also want the lawmakers to strengthen the judiciary. “The judiciary is one area that needs more strengthening, especially in terms of the electoral process and how things get distorted along the way,” she said.

Another landmark legislation to which the Ninth National Assembly gets commended is the Petroleum Industry Bill, which it passed. This had defied efforts in that direction for the past 14 years.

While it may be seen that applause may be given for these landmark bills, some Nigerians still question the role of the National Assembly in improving the country’s democracy.

This concern will be largely due to the constitution amendments bill passed by the parliament, which excluded the improvement of participation of women in politics and government.

Despite weeks of protest at the gate of the National Assembly, which compelled the lawmakers to access the complex through the back gate, nothing changed.

Although the House of Representatives later back-tracked and reconsidered four of the five gender bills, this amounts to nullity as they were not passed in the Senate.

A look at the contribution of the Ninth National Assembly to the fight against corruption through its oversight functions has been brought to question.

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