Time for NASS to get serious about lawmaking

There currently lie before the National Assembly various bills which have been stalled for years, whose passage would positively impact the Nigerian economy. Top on the list is the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), an all-important bill that will regulate the sector that currently brings in 95 percent of Nigeria’s dollar earnings.

Members of the House of Representatives have recently moved a motion to take over the running of the Rivers State House of Assembly. This move, while noble, would indeed be a needless distraction at this critical period of global uncertainty.

There is a clear role for the legislature in the constitution, which is to make laws, appropriate funds and perform the necessary federal oversight functions. The National Assembly, however, is facing a backlog of unfinished businesses and increasing public disapproval.

The legislators have only passed less than 10 percent of bills before them since the inauguration of the 7th Assembly (2011-2015) on June 6, 2011. The NASS, which comprises a Senate and a House of Representatives, has passed 69 bills out of a total of 725 bills in various stages of progress before it, according to Business Day’s analysis of the bill progression chart of both houses got from the assembly’s website.

Meanwhile, 73 percent of people in Nigeria thought that the legislature was affected by corruption, data from Transparency International’s most recent global corruption barometer shows. 94 percent of respondents in the same TI survey said Nigerian political parties were affected by corruption.

The slow pace of progress on key legislation is a concern for investors, according to Razia Khan, regional head of research, Africa, at Standard Chartered Bank, London. According to her, if Nigeria were forced to act swiftly in response to any new external developments, the long drawn-out process of approving budget amendments does not inspire much confidence that the country might have the budget flexibility required to take prompt action.

The PIB, which may help improve job creation and revenues for the government at all levels and in theory better the lives of the 70 percent of Nigerians who live below the poverty line, has been stuck in parliament for over four years. This has led to lost or deferred investment of at least $28 billion in Nigeria’s oil sector since 2010, according to ExxonMobil’s Nigerian producing unit, with the beneficiaries being other producers in the sub-region such as Angola and Ghana.

Other important bills awaiting passage are Health Insurance Amendment Bill, Railway Act Amendment Bill, Housing Trust Fund Bill, and a whistle blower bill.

Indeed, the legislators should be more concerned that the pace of the movement of the economic reform process has been rather slow (of which they are a major culprit), raising doubts about the National Assembly’s commitment to the said reforms. More worryingly, where the legislators have shaken off their legendry lethargy and chosen to act quickly, it has been in a vindictive and not well thought-out manner, such as the recent move to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act, a move which has been universally condemned by most analysts and economists within and outside the country.

To most Nigerians, members of the NASS are the weakest link in the (governance) chain and are mostly irrelevant to their lives. Many citizens cannot fathom why the legislators are paid so much money to do so little.

It behoves the NASS members to begin to strategise on how they would pass the various bills on their desk so they will have a benchmark of achievements to show the Nigerian people by 2015 when the current 7th Assembly ends.