Belated songs of freedom at the National Assembly

When the detailed account about how democracy was betrayed by the All-Progressives Congress (APC) in its first decade as a ruling party in Nigeria would be documented, the National Assembly will occupy a prominent place among the opprobrious.

That an institution on the deck of which democracy’s resilient spirit was anchored would totally abdicate its responsibility to the citizens and the state, and prefer to subordinate itself to the executive branch, remains a part of the calamity of the period in reference.

If the legislative arm at the national level has never thrived on an elevated pedestal of independence, the total capitulation of the 10th National Assembly would not have been as pathetic and reprehensive. But the National Assembly has had some decent outing in the past. Even under the APC regime, but for the forgettable leadership of Senator Ahmed Lawann, when the legislative abnegation reared its ugly head, the legislature can point at some decent past.

Yes, the executive branch is often identified with overbearing tendencies, but the duties is that of the legislature to defend its turf. The executive did not force elected representatives of the people to burst into strange songs of loyalty at the appearance of the head of the executive branch.

The indictment of the 10th National Assembly does not derive only from the grievous fact that it sinned. Deserving no less condemnation is the fact that it set an inglorious template in diffidence which legislative houses across the states copied.

As virtually all state houses of assembly succumbed in the last decade to the whims of their respective governors without a whimper, democracy in Nigeria became anything but that. Across the states, the governors reigned as small emperors in their respective domains, all with temperament that accommodates no alternative views. At the national level, the president reigns as a peculiar potentate, a personage that is different things at all times; a master strategist extraordinaire, a demigod, a commander-in-chief, an unchallengeable dispenser of the national wealth and a law unto himself. A complaisant National Assembly pledges allegiance to the executive and conveniently looks away. Some say they had been paid off. May be.

As it has turned out, the legislators did not only abandon the people who looked up to them to speak out as their representatives, they also abandoned themselves. Very little which the legislature ought to do for the society and for itself appears to have been done, not in the last three years. They did not vet or improve on the annual budgets presented to them.

They hardly interrogated nor turned down any nominee sent to them, except anyone which the nominating authority was not committed to appointing in the first place. The legislators never rejected any request for borrowing from the executive. And they dared not question any policy of the executive, whether at the federal or in the states. The phrase rubber stamp fitted so tightly.

Now, few months to the end of their tenure, belated groans are being heard from the legislative chambers, bemoaning their own acts of negligence and abdication.

The House of the Representatives woke up recently to cry over a circular from the executive branch restricting the legislature from embarking on foreign trips without the approval of the executive. Deliberating on the motion, “Need to safeguard the constitutional independence of the Legislature as a distinctive arm of Government from Executive Control on Official foreign travel”, the members of the House decried the implication of the circular. They subsequently passed a resolution to further pursue their disapproval of the circular.

In the deliberation on the motion on the floor of the House of Representatives, very interesting phrases and concepts were thrown up. Some talked about “parliamentary independence”. Others spoke of “respect for the doctrine of separation of powers as enshrined in the 1999 constitution”. Yet others talked about “mutual respect between the arms of the government”. It was puzzling, if not piteous hearing the songs of affliction by the legislators in the evening of their tenure.

Perhaps, nothing captured the bizarreness of the new awakening at the House of Representatives on the need for “respect for the doctrine of separation powers” more than the time it took for the legislators to wake up from slumber. While the belated awakening by way of the motion and the deliberations on the matter came up at the House in the third week of October 2026, the circular in question was issued by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on August 13, 2026.

The issue here is not the propriety or otherwise of the executive branch unilaterally directing that the legislature must obtain approval from it before embarking on official foreign trips. There are ample reasons for, and against the directive. An entirely different approach, certainly more regardful would have been adopted by the executive branch on the matter had the legislative branch not capitulated and made itself a forlorn outpost of the executive branch.

A legislative branch that sold itself to the executive branch for a pittance, virtually, and could not even demand for respect, cannot wake up late in the day to start bandying such self-undermined concept as the doctrine of separation of powers. Which powers are separated now? In their new awakening, the House of representatives copiously quoted sections of the Constitution which established that the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary are distinct arms of the government. They informed themselves, obviously, that “the National Assembly was an independent arm of government and should not be treated as a Ministry, Department or subordinate institution of the Executive.”

Good morning, honourable members. The Judiciary is being awaited with its own songs of freedom.