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Ranking members of the 9th House of Representatives on Wednesday underscored the need for the orientation of Nigerians on the statutory roles of the Legislative arm of government at all levels under a democratic dispensation.
The lawmakers gave the charge during the public presentation of the 3rd Annual Report on the Independent performance appraisals of the 9th National Assembly, organized by OrderPaper Advocacy Initiative (OAI) with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
In his address, OAI Executive Director, Mr. Oke Epia observed that before now focus had always been on the Executive arm of government, gave insight to the Organisation’s resolve to shift attention to the legislature which is the closest to the people and a critical arm in a democracy.
“The National Assembly constitutes the legislative arm of government in Nigeria. Unfortunately, it is one of the three arms (the other two being Executive and Judiciary), that has received less scrutiny from citizens. Or, better put, it has received less-informed and organized scrutiny. While this document does not exhaustively address all the reasons behind this state of affairs, it identifies that citizens have not been availed of valid, scientific and empirical basis to interrogate the performance of their representatives in parliament.
“This work goes beyond identifying this fact to proffer solutions by setting objective metrics for sufficiently measuring the performance of members of the National Assembly. It then goes on to apply data exclusively (and painstakingly) obtained from the records of the National Assembly, in addition to deploying the niche experience and exposure of OrderPaper in its work with the Parliament over the years and then infusing those with submissions from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) engaged for the Voter Project to produce concise but comprehensive appraisals of all 469 members of the National Assembly (108 in the Senate and 360 in the House of Representatives) as well as the legislative institution.
“This document is, therefore, an abridged version of a comprehensive three years Report Card of the 9th National Assembly of Nigeria from June 2019, when it was inaugurated, till May 2022. It speaks to the criteria and metrics used for the performance appraisals and provides a summary of the detailed report card, which will be disseminated in categories.
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“It is expected that this document will close the yawning gap in performance appraisals of the National Assembly and provide a valid and objective basis for citizens to determine the suitability or otherwise of incumbent legislators seeking re-election into the federal Legislature in the 2023 general elections,” he noted.
In his remarks, the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu who urged the Organisation on the need to produce the publication in a handy form “for members improving their representation. And at the same time if there are some missing links in your report, it will also be subject to scrutiny.”
While commending the publication for adding value to the Parliament, he averred that the publication will help in the area of memory retention. Institution memory this is how it starts. I think it’s a major contribution. It is also good that you will add value when you compare what happened in the 8th Assembly and what is happening now. It is a way to motivate.
“And in addition, it is also very critical that you make an assessment of how impactful these bills have been, what’s the level of impacts on the Nigerian public. Not just the preponderance and also not just the number. It is very important to check to what extent it adds value and the originality of bills. So, I think you’ve got a lot of work to do, those that have been signed, those that are much more impactful to the public. With these, you can begin to benchmark yourself on what to do by the 10th Assembly,” he urged.
On his part, former Chairman, House Committee on Public Petitions, Hon. Uzoma Nkem-Abonta who commended the management of OrderPaper for setting up a committee that oversights the Parliament, stressed the need to lay “emphasis on the core duties of a legislator, particularly “t the public space outside there. Most of our constituents perhaps use a different parameter in assessing us. They use the stomach infrastructure, how much can you bring, how much can you dash, meaning if I have enough money to dash, and you come here sit down and do nothing, you are a good Parliamentarian.
“And if you come here and introduce and bring about bills that will turn into laws and change our lives, you are useless, what a contradiction because of wrong perception. Otherwise, how can anybody of our constituents, take for example, saying that Senator Abaribe or my good self are not productive in the National Assembly? Therefore, I want to urge you to put your efforts on letting the voters know the core mandate of legislators, what they ought to expect, what they should be,” he stressed.
While noting that some members may not be able to sponsor bills but versatile in other Committees’ engagements such as investigative hearings and oversight functions, he said: “It’s just like a lawyer who goes to Court, to be a SAN you don’t need to win all your cases, it’s the number of cases you have done in the High Court or Supreme Court. You could be opposing a matter and losing but you added value to it.
“I made bold to say that there are legislators who will say this is a bad bill it cannot work, they stand up and speak against. They have also contributed.
“Also in public hearings, and committees should form part of your assessment. But in the whole, on the totality of your work, I must say you have done marvelous, you have done noble. I urge you to continue in increase in your speed, increase in your dexterity, increase in your focus increase in publication, increase in awareness until we let the public know what to expect.
“The right exams to set for us and the right answers they should expect from us. Or we will keep missing it. I think you’ve done noble continue doing it,” Hon. Nkem-Abonta stressed.
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