STATE LEGISLATURES WATCH DOGS OR PET DOGS?
The recent happening in the various state houses of Assembly in Nigeria has continued to give many well-meaning Nigerians worries. The state legislatures have continued to be rubber-stamps to the executives.
The state legislatures have continued to under perform and they have on many occasions used by the executive to witch-hunt political enemies and to unduly impeach house members and deputy Governors who are not loyal to the Governor. The case of IMO state and other states are still fresh in our memories.
The basic constitutional duties of the legislature, which includes checking the excesses of the executive arm of government have been thrown to the gutters.
Many have argued that the doctrine of separation of powers enshrined in the amended 1999 Constitution only exists on paper as the state legislatures have become mere extensions of the executive arm of government. The ineptitude of the lawmakers, budget execution has become a mirage leading to decay in infrastructure.
‘Wugira once said “the reasons for the poor performance of the legislature might not be unconnected with the way they emerged members of the Assembly”. According to him;
The victory of most of the lawmakers was influenced by some political godfathers. The situation, he said, has led to the lawmakers serving their benefactors rather than the people.
It will be imperative to have an insight into the principle of separation of Powers.
The separation of powers is a constitutional principle introduced to ensure that the three major institutions of the state, namely; the legislative, the executive and the judiciary are not concentrated in any single body whether in functions, personnel or powers.
The legislative is a law-making body, Executive puts the law into operation and the Judiciary interprets law and settle disputes. Montesquieu, a French writer/philosopher believes that if all three powers were held by the same person, then there would be a dictatorship and arbitrary rule would prevail.
Another writer, John Locke mentioned that the three organs of the state must not get into one hand as it may be too great a temptation to human frailty. Aristotle is of the opinion that if the three organs of a state is well arranged, then the constitution is bound to be well arranged
The recent decline in the duties of the legislature has shown that the legislature is truly not independent of the executive and therefore, is often incapacitated from acting as the watchdog executive activities. Thus, the inordinate ambition of the members and leadership of the legislative houses often sees them hobnobbing with the executive such that valuable time for law-making is lost in the process of lobbying for juicy leadership positions and committees in the legislative houses.
It is common knowledge that a good number of members of the legislative houses pursue pure selfish interests that often inhibit them from combating the challenges of lawmaking. Members pursue contracts from the leadership of the houses and even from the executive such that they easily compromise when it comes to contributing meaningfully to debates on the floor of the house.
At times, some members resort to absenteeism from the floor of the house and do not participate at all in the proceedings. Again, many of the legislators have ambitions to contest for leadership positions in the house or membership and chairman of juicy committees. A lot of valuable legislative time is wasted while pursuing these ambitions.
The Legislature must arise and say no to inefficiency, ineffectiveness, corruption, mismanagement of public resources, etc., by the executive and be more independent instead of being the house boys to the governors. The relevance of a good active Legislature in a democratic governance need not be overemphasized.
