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| Lawan and Gbajabiamila |
By Idowu Akinlotan
During his end of year empowerment programme for his
constituents in Surulere, Lagos, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila appeared to speak
tongue in cheek when he gave impetus to the popular impression that the 9th
National Assembly had become a rubber stamp for the executive. Reports of the
empowerment programme were not detailed enough to determine whether anyone had
asked him what he thought of the allegation of ineffectiveness levelled against
the 9th NASS, or whether he simply thought aloud, imagining that the allegation
was widespread and worrisome enough to attract his view. So he probably spoke
tongue in cheek; but to many critics it was either a gaffe or a Freudian slip.
“People, critics and members of other parties have
said the 9th Assembly is a rubber stamp of the executive,” groaned Hon
Gbajabiamila. “They may have told you that, too. You know what? It is better to
be a rubber stamp and bring progress, than fight the executive without
progress. When two elephants fight, the grass suffers. The fact is that the
National Assembly is not a rubber stamp. This is a National Assembly that
represents the interests of the people .The people of Surulere did not elect me
to fight the executive, but to engage and collaborate with stakeholders to
bring the dividends of democracy. This is a new dispensation. There will be
checks and balances. There will be separation of powers. We will agree with the
executive if we have to and we will disagree if we have to. Our watchword is to
protect the interests of the Nigerian people. That is the oath that my
colleagues and I swore to.”
The 9th NASS is about six months old. In that
period, it has been dogged by accusations of ineffectiveness and deliberate
subsumption and subordination to the executive. There is hardly any month that
Senate President Ahmed Lawan himself has not responded to accusation of
presiding over a rubber-stamp assembly. He has defended himself as robustly as
he can manage, but it must be clear to even him that he has not been
successful. And despite whatever feats the 9th NASS might accomplish in the future,
it is doubtful whether they will not continue to be regarded as a rubber-stamp
assembly. In fact his recent statements that whatever came from the president
by way of bills would be deemed good and lawful, and that the $29.6bn loan
desired by the executive would be approved even before debate, lend credence to
the allegations of the 9th NASS being a weak and soulless assembly.
Obviously, Sen Lawan and Hon Gbajabiamila think critics are
wrong to dismissively characterise the 9th NASS as soulless, and both
legislators also unwisely equate robust oversight functions with conflict and
obduracy. But Sen Lawan has made a poor job of defending the senate, not to
talk of projecting the wrong ideas of what it means to cooperate with the
executive, and incompetently defining what legislative independence means. Last
Sunday, Hon Gabajabiamila added insult to injury when he, it seems, spoke
tongue in cheek, and managed in the process to open a window into how his mind
works on the controversy. By suggesting that if being a rubber stamp could
nevertheless deliver progress and still be worth it, he gave alarming vent to a
dangerous logic unworthy of both his profession and calling.
No, Mr Speaker, the end does not justify the means.
Those who voted the 9th Assembly had no illusions about the poor democratic
records of the executive; they, therefore, expect the parliament, which is the
most powerful symbol of democracy, to help moderate and mitigate the inexorable
excesses of the government. It is a great pity that neither Sen Lawan nor Hon
Gbajabiamila understands the legislative nuances they have been called upon to
inspire, and have in consequence both leapt imprudently into parliamentary
nothingness and outsourced their responsibility to civil society groups and other
eminent Nigerians like T.Y. Danjuma who recently tantalised Nigerians with
tales of the political witchcraft enveloping the country.
Source: The Nation
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