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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
A high turnover of lawmakers has been identified as one of the factors militating against the effectiveness of the legislature.
The Director General, National Institute of Democratic Studies (NILDS), Sulaiman Abubakar, stated this while speaking as a guest lecturer, at the House of Representatives Press Corps Press Week/ Awards, on Monday in Abuja.
Abubakar, while speaking on the theme “high turnover of lawmakers: impact and way forward”, said the high turnover of lawmakers weakens the capability of the legislature and does not allow for continuity between one assembly and another.
The NILDS boss stated that about three years for a new lawmaker to fully understand the working of the parliament. However, he noted that unfortunately, by the time most of the lawmakers have gained a mastery of the processes, they are replaced by another set of new lawmakers.
Abubakar noted that the 10th assembly may be the worst hit, as 130 out of the 360 members of the Green chamber lost out in the nomination of their political parties for the 2023 general elections.
“The high turnover rate also disrupts legislative process and activities and does not ensure continuity between one session of the Assembly and its succeeding regimes. Imagine you commence work on one bill process, maybe it has gotten to the second stage and because the Senator that sponsored it is not coming back, another senator who may not even know where it stopped is coming to replace him to start the process all over again,” he stated.
“Already, there is a clear indication that the incoming 10th National Assembly might be worse than the previous ones. When the 9th Assembly was inaugurated, there were about 215 new members, against a little over 130 old members which cut across all the political parties. Among them, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had the highest number of new lawmakers (137), while the PDP was next, with 59 members.
“With over 130 members of the House already out of the contest without a nomination to contest, there are fears that the number of lawmakers that will return may further deplete. This indicates that the number of fresh lawmakers in the incoming 10th Assembly House in 2023 may be higher than the last assembly,” he stated.
The NILDS DG canvased that, as a way of halting the high turnover of lawmakers, the constitution should be amended to raise the educational qualification for contesting election into the parliament, increase the tenure of lawmakers ” or stem the incursion of the retired governors and other executives into eroding the independence of the legislature.”
Earlier, in her welcome address, the chairman of the Press Corps, Ms Grace Ike, noted that with a high number of lawmakers, stated that a vibrant legislature is critical to the country’s democracy.
However, Ike lamented that “we are set to witness the highest turnover of lawmakers in the 2023 election and this is a cause to worry about. Obviously, about 70- 80 per cent of lawmakers will not make it back to both the federal and state assemblies; which is quite worrisome and the adverse effect resulting in loss of institutional memories, experience and relegation of competency to the background among other issues.
