Executive – Legislature Powers: If not for our leadership, we’ll have a timid National Assembly
Pho
Date:
Wed, 06/13/2012 - 23:03Is there a boundary in the Constitution concerning separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislature? When the Constitution provided that for you to seek any elective office, you must be sponsored by a political party, the Constitution contemplated a situation where a party with overall majority would be the party in government and the Constitution didn’t make an exception as to whether it’s an elective office in the Executive or an elective office in the Legislature that must be sponsored by a political party. It was a general provision. So, we now find ourselves in a paradox where people from the same stock, some in the Executive, some in the Legislature are now expected to act as opposition to one another. It cannot be in the kind of constitutional situation we find ourselves.
There definitely would be that cross-over of roles and relationships. Now, down to the specific question you asked me; where the boundary should be? Well, the boundary should be where the Constitution has put it. The Constitution is very, very clear in certain roles and in certain obligations. For instance, it says categorically that the legislative powers shall reside in the National Assembly and in the Houses of Assembly in the states. For the Executive powers, it states very, very clearly that it shall reside with the President or the Governor, as the case may be. For the judicial powers, that is vested unequivocally in the Judiciary. So, the limits are those limits that are defined by the Constitution. As far as I’am concerned, the constitutional limits are absolute; they are mandatory. So, where the Constitution has specified a role, you cannot say because both of us are from the same party you shouldn’t play that constitutional role.
But the President wants cooperation from a PDP-controlled National Assembly. We can only smoothen the relationship in those fringe areas where the Constitution is not very clear. That is the territory where we can improve our relationship but then again, who should initiate the process of cooperation? Is it the Legislature or is it the Executive or is the party? Certainly, it is not the Legislature that should initiate it because even though constitutionally, the Legislature is the main arm of government and that is why if you check every Constitution, whether it is the US Constitution or the Nigerian Constitution, in fact, any Presidential Constitution, the first institution that is created is the Legislature because it presupposes that it is the main...But the reality on is that the Executive that drives the process. The Executive authority, which is the authority to execute the laws, including the Constitution, resides with the Executive arm and that is why the President is also the leader of his party. So, he can either take the wicket of the party to initiate that or take the wicket of being the person who is executing the laws to initiate it.
It seems there is a disconnect between the party, the Executive and the Legislature unlike what obtained in the Second Republic. There is. There is clearly that disconnect. Why can’t the PDP emulate what NPN did in the Second Republic by consulting with the two arms of government on national issues Look, in those times when Senator Olusola Saraki was the Senate Leader, it wasn’t the Legislature that initiated it. They had a very strong NPN, the party was strong.
Does it mean the party, which should be the link is not playing its role? Well, we don’t have the kind of interface that would produce the kind of result that the President is talking about yet. That interface is not there yet. But again, we put the matter squarely before the President because apart from being the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is also the leader of the PDP. The leadership of the National Assembly does not have that kind of advantage.
How then can the two arms of government function as one as evinced by President Jonathan? I try to draw a distinction about the verge, By verge, I mean those areas the Constitution is not very clear; where you can exercise a lot of discretion or discretionary powers and I also distinguish between the verge and the core. The core is what the Constitution gives to us as our responsibilities. You cannot negotiate that. You cannot. The Constitution is very, very clear about oversighting MDA’s that receive appropriation. We cannot say that, ‘oh, because we are from the same party, we are going to negotiate that away or wish that away or wish that away.’ No! It’s a constitutional responsibility. If you go back to our respective oaths of office, we swore to defend, protect and uphold the Constitution and that Constitution is the fundamental document that governs the relationship, in fact that creates the institutions, creates the powers, creates the principalities (if you would allow me to say so) and also defines how they are to relate to one another.
On interaction between the leadership of the National Assembly and the Executive Well, I remember that when I first came here there were regular meetings between the President and the leadership of the National Assembly. We still meet with the President but not as regularly as we would like. Let me say this; let us not put the President in a corner. The Constitution is very, very clear. You forward a bill to the President and within 30 days, he’s supposed to give his assent or notify us that he is withholding his assent.
Has he done that with the bills forwarded to him because the Speaker spoke about them? He hasn’t notified us that he is withholding his assent. The bills passed in the Sixth National Assembly and passed to the President for assent but were not assented to would have to be taken afresh but the process is still the same.
Is that not a waste of public funds? Well, ours is to do our work. Some other person is to do his work to make the work complete. So, how many matters or issues can the National Assembly ignore in order to work in harmony with the Executive? I can tell you the ones that we cannot ignore.
Can we know them? The ones, for instance, that requires expenditure of public funds. You cannot ignore that.
Are there issues you can resolve at the party level before coming to the chamber? You can resolve positions, especially where a legislation, for instance, supports a particular government policy.
Can a party matter be allowed to take precedence over a constitutional matter if you want to work in harmony? No. If we want to work in harmony, then, we must understand on every issue, our respective constitutional roles. Instead of emphasizing our differences, we should rather emphasise our responsibilities and get to understand the responsibility of each arm of government.
Why make resolutions that are purely advisory without any force of law? If you amend the Constitution to give effect to such resolutions, you would in effect be ascribing executive powers to the Legislature.
Why make resolutions that would not be obeyed or implemented by the Executive? We do that because the Constitution is very, very clear. If you take section 88 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), if you permit me, please, let me read directly from what the Constitution says so that we can truly appreciate what the issue is. Section 88 of the Constitution provides:
“Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, each House of the National Assembly shall have power by resolution, published in its journal or by official gazette of the Government of the Federation to direct or cause to be directed, an investigation into a matter or thing in which it has powers to make laws.” Mind you, anything we have powers to legislate on, we can investigate.
Two: “The conduct of affairs of any person, authority, ministry or government department, charged or intended to be charged with the duty of or responsibility for executing the laws enacted by the National Assembly or disbursing or administering monies appropriated or to be appropriated by the National Assembly.” So, the moment you are charged with the responsibility of executing the laws of this country or you receive appropriation or benefit from appropriation of the National Assembly, then, you are subject to the oversight powers of the National Assembly and those oversight powers include investigations and we now go back to the second bit of section 88.
The powers conferred on the National Assembly, under the provisions of this section, are exercisable only for the purpose of enabling it to (a) make laws with respect to any matter within its legislative competence and correct any defects in existing laws which means our power of appropriation is actually designed to strengthen the processes of governance. I don’t know if you are getting the import. It doesn’t say we should say Mr. A or Mr. B is guilty of corruption. You conduct your oversight with the aim of identifying the areas of weaknesses and then, strengthen those areas so that the process of governance can be stronger. Then, the (b) part: expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its executive competence and in the disbursement and administration of funds appropriated by it. The Constitution gives us a limit. It’s says just expose. You expose it and so be it.
But in February 2010, the Executive obeyed a resolution of the National Assembly which made the then Vice President, Acting President. Why ignore other resolutions? It’s a question that is best addressed to the Executive arm but having been a member of the Executive at some point, even though at a lower level, I’m not making excuses for them, but I suspect that there are issues because when these resolutions come, first of all, you are going to get the relevant arms of the Executive to respond, then you would now send to the Attorney General of the Federation to see whether or not there are any inhibitions to it’s being implemented.
And then, if there are resolutions that require prosecution, even though I have my own views on how far National Assembly resolutions can go and should go; but if for instance, they require prosecution, the agencies responsible are not just going to take the resolutions like that and go to court because a National Assembly resolution may not meet prosecutorial requirements. That is why they have to subject them to stress tests.
Why make resolutions? First of all, the Constitution gave us responsibilities and you cannot, having been created, say, okay, I want to ignore the responsibilities the Constitution imposed on me. It’s a constitutional duty. So, it is not our responsibility to implement those resolutions. Ours is to do our own duty. Whether they implement or they don’t implement, we would continue in line with our constitutional obligations to expose corruption, inefficiency, etc.
On non-implementation of oversight reports by standing committees Well, they are structural issues. First of all, let me say this; in the many years of military rule, we suffered as a National Assembly, we suffered as a Legislature. We suffered the loss and erosion of capacity and two, because our growth hasn’t been consistent, you know each time the military came, we were suspended. They go back, we come back and we don’t necessarily start from where they left us the last time and we go back to the beginning.
Our growth hasn’t been consistent, so we hadn’t developed the kind of capacity that one would like to see, but I believe that with time and it’s a matter of time, we will get to that level. In terms of even facilities, you have reported this National Assembly for a awhile now, and you can see that it’s only in the last six months that you can see, in fact, this Seventh National Assembly that you can say every Senator, for instance, has a proper office. I remember when I came in 2003, I was at the annex, sharing one room with so many people, sharing conveniences and other facilities with everybody else. So, even in terms of facilities, we are just building up.
Following from this issue of capacity, right now, let us take, say, the budget; the parameters we use, the indices we use are inputs from the Executive arm of government because we don’t have the independent capacity to generate our own parameters and indices. As they say in Information Technology, it’s Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO). W have those fundamental issues, and that is why we are working towards a National Assembly Budget Office. We hope that that kind of office would attract the kind of personnel, the kind of expertise, the kind of competences that would enable us form our own independent judgement of executive action rather than right now depending on what the Executive inputs to us.
Then, secondly, we still have to deal with the issue of perception of the National Assembly. I will give you an example: the public expects the National Assembly to be very efficient; to be able to oversight completely the Executive. But go and purchase one vehicle for a National Assembly committee and it is the subject of an editorial in our newspapers. Just one vehicle! Meanwhile, a very obscure department of government will buy 100 vehicles at the same time and it is not an issue. But the moment the National Assembly buys one vehicle, especially if it is suspected that a member of the National Assembly will ride in that vehicle, it is a problem.
Now, going back to the issue of perception, we are sitting in an office and I do official letters, do official work; now, if this office is given N10, 000 to buy stationery, the media will report it as part of my salary! Now, what is the implication of this perception? We are lucky that we have had very bold leadership that are continuing, in spite of this hostile, negative public perception. But if we didn’t have this kind of leadership that we have, you would probably end up with a very timid National Assembly. You could end up with a very timid National Assembly and he has been ascribed salaries that he doesn’t earn; I have also been ascribed salaries that I don’t earn.
We are subjected to different standards of evaluation; the same public service. A minister would have overheads, but it is not calculated as part of his salary. The Judiciary would have it’s overheads and they are not calculated as part of the salaries of judges, but let the National Assembly have overheads and it is automatically calculated as my salary!
I say that we have structural problems and we have hostile public perception, issues of capacity, etc. But, in spite of that, we are doing the best that we can possibly do. The United States Library of Congress is the biggest repository of knowledge you can find anywhere in the world. It is owned by parliament; the US Library of Congress but here, what can you point at in the National Assembly that is exceptional? Have you seen our library before? Y
et, people keep talking of our budget which is just N150 billion for the entire National Assembly, which is just about three percent of the entire annual budget and is about 10 percent of what is spent on petroleum subsidy. That is what is the issue.
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