Issues that shaped 10th N/Assembly in 2023

The year 2023 was tumultuous for Nigeria’s federal parliament. It witnessed the end and the beginning of the ninth and tenth assemblies respectively.

While the previous legislative session drew to a close peacefully, the current one began on a rancorous note with a keenly contested leadership race that birthed acrimony that has refused to fizzle out. Here are some of the highlights of issues that defined the country’s highest law making body in 2023: 

High legislative turnover

The 10th Assembly is populated by mostly first time lawmakers – about 70 per cent – many of whom lack a deep knowledge of legislative proceedings, which often reflect in their contributions to motions and debates.

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Many of the old and experienced legislators lost out to not only rivals in their political parties who got the tickets, but also to greenhorns from other parties during the general elections.

Experts had spoken severally on the implications of high attrition of experienced lawmakers on the performance of the National Assembly.

“The continuous replacement of the significant members of the legislature after each general election cycle has serious implications for its ability to perform its role effectively. 

“This has led to several capacity gaps in our legislative practice and procedures at both the state and national levels,” said Professor Abubakar O. Suleiman, the Director General of the National Institute For Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).

“Legislators hardly develop an understanding of the legislative practice and procedures before they are changed. This negatively affects the legislators’ capacity in discharging their duties as some of the most experienced legislators are not often returned.

Rancorous leadership tussle

The race for senate presidency and speakership of the 10th National Assembly was said to be the most intense, crowded, and rancorous in recent history.

While the contest for the leadership of both chambers had always been dogged by high-wired politicking, drama, and executive interference, that of the current National Assembly assumed an unprecedented dimension.

It was shaped by intense lobbying, horse trading, alliances and vote buying as aspirants struggled to outspend one another in a bid to get the support of their colleagues.

Despite presidency interference and pressure which forced many aspirants to drop out, daring lawmakers contested against the favoured candidates.

Abdulaziz Yari gave Godswill Akpabio a run for his money in the Senate presidency race, which ended 46–63 in favour of the latter.

In the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas faced a calibre of candidates, who had almost equal chance of clinching the speaker’s seat. 

But a few days before the election, all the other candidates except two, the former Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase and Sani Jaji, stepped down and declared support for Abbas, who later got 353 votes. The two others had three votes each.

The jostle for principal offices also raised dust among senators and leadership of political parties. 

The then chairmen of both APC and PDP, the two parties, with the highest lawmakers in the Red Chamber, rejected the names announced by Akpabio. Again, after presidential intervention, normalcy was restored to the parliament and the defeated candidates resigned to fate.

Akpabio’s holiday ‘enjoyment’ statement

The Senate President drew the ire of Nigerians after his August 7 “holiday enjoyment allowance” remark shortly before adjourning plenary for a long recess made the rounds on social media.

“To enable all of us to enjoy our holiday, a token has been sent to our various bank accounts by the Clerk of the National Assembly,’’ Akpabio told his colleagues, apparently forgetting that the proceeding was being live streamed. 

The “holiday bonus” comment came weeks after the lawmakers were allocated N70 billion to support their “working conditions” in an amended 2022 supplementary appropriation act.

Nigerians lampooned the Senate President, saying it was very unfortunate that such a statement could be made by Akpabio at a time when Nigerians were feeling the heat of high living cost following fuel subsidy removal.

Impeachment rumour

During a long recess in August, there were reports of moves by some disgruntled lawmakers to remove Akpabio as Senate President.

Akpabio had dismissed the impeachment move, describing it as complete imaginations and sometimes laced with malice, saying the Senate under his leadership was stable.

But the anti-Akpabio senators were said to have accused the Senate President of orchestrating what they called an imaginary impeachment plot targeted at pitching lawmakers against President Tinubu.

‘Empty’ budget box  

 The 2024 budget generated controversies few days after it was presented to the parliament by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Unlike his predecessors, sectoral allocations of the budget were not captured in the president’s budget speech, raising insinuation in some quarters that Tinubu submitted empty boxes to the parliament.

A member of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Galambi (NNPP, Jigawa) had, during an interview with BBC Hausa Service, accused Tinubu of presenting “empty boxes”, suggesting that, the president was not ready for budget defence but only came out to deceive the populace.

The speculation became rife when lawmakers, during debate on the proposals, complained that they were not provided the budget details, which they said would limit their comments.

In a move to douse the controversy, the Senate Appropriations Committee hurriedly released few details, including sectoral allocations while the budget ministry a few days later released the full budget breakdown.

The first appropriation bill in the life of the 10th National Assembly was passed in record 31 days after presentation on November 29 and was signed into law yesterday by the president.

Tribunal verdicts

The Court of Appeal nullified the elections of some lawmakers, including ranking ones, following petitions by their opponents challenging their elections. New ones, mostly first timers, were inaugurated after the court ruled in their favour.

Those sacked from the Red Chamber were Elisha Abbo (Adamawa), Simon Davou Mwadkwon (Plateau), Napoleon Bali (Plateau), Abubakar Sadiku Ohere (Kogi) and Darlington Nwokocha (Abia).

About 15 members of the House were affected by the court rulings.

Plateau state has the highest number of lawmakers sacked by the court, all of them PDP members. They were Dachung Bagos, Beni Lar, Isaac Kwalu, Peter Gyendeng Ibrahim and Musa Agha. They were replaced by members of LP and APC.

SUV controversy

The purchase of 109 Toyota land cruisers for senators and 360 Prado for members of the House of Representatives raised dust as it always does in the previous assemblies.

Nigerians expressed their anger at the purchase of the vehicles costing billions of Naira at a time when many citizens are finding it hard to meet their basic needs.

Over the years, the purchase of new vehicles for the lawmakers after every four years had been controversial, which drew condemnations and portrays them as self-serving.

However, the criticism and condemnations did not stop the purchase of the luxury vehicles for the lawmakers.

Dust over job racketeering probe

One of the high points in the House of Representatives in the course of the year was the dust raised over the probe into job racketeering and mismanagement of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Daily Trust reports that the committee in the course of its investigations unearthed mind-blowing revelations of large scale jobs’ racketeering involving key officials of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), including its chairperson, Muheeba Farida Dankaka and her special assistant, Haruna Kolo.

10th House Legislative Agenda

On November 14, 2023, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen unveiled the 8-point Legislative Agenda of the 10th House, with a pledge to partner with President Tinubu on the successful implementation of the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of the current administration.

The agenda include, strengthening good governance, improving national security, law reform, economic growth and development, social sector reform and development, inclusion and open parliament, influencing/directing Nigeria’s foreign policy, and climate change and environmental sustainability.

LP senators’ protest over minority leadership

Another dramatic turn in the course of the year was the protest over minority leadership in the Senate.

The Red Chamber witnessed a rancorous session when Akpabio announced Abba Moro (PDP, Benue) as minority leader and Osita Ngwu (PDP, Enugu) as minority whip to replace Simon Mwadkwon (PDP, Plateau) and Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia), whose elections were nullified by the appellate court.

The announcement did not sit well with LP senators, who described the arrangement as injustice against other minority parties.