Reps blame high turnover of lawmakers on executive rascality

THE House of representatives and National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) have blamed the high turnover of lawmakers in each election cycle on executive rascality of state governors.

Femi Gbajabimila, speaker of the House and Abubakar Sulaiman made this assertion when they spoke at the 2022 week of the House of representatives Press Corps with the theme: “High turnover of the lawmakers:

Impact and way forward” in Abuja on Monday.

Gbajabimila, represented by Peter Akpatason, the deputy majority leader of the House, said the high turnover of legislators was due to the inordinate desire of governors to maintain firm grip on political control of their states.

He said the development has negatively impacted the legislature which is the bastion of democracy.

“When you talk about executive rascality, I don’t think a lot of people actually know. It is a serious issue in this country. We have a situation where governors want to do and take everything in this country, but it is not in the interest of Nigerians.

“It is not in the interest of democracy when a governor sits down and says XY must not come back, why? You are not looking at experience, competence, is not about inability to perform. The turnover of legislators is majorly due to the horde of the governors,’ he added.

“The legislature as the bastion of democracy can do their job very well only when you have a stock of competent and experienced human beings. A federal turnover is a serious problem, serious in the sense that, the older the better, the more experienced the better legislature.

“The best legislators are legislators who have seen it from every angle but you cannot come in and do one term and say you have seen. How much have you seen actually? How much would you know in the National Assembly in four years? He asked rhetorically.