LAWMAKING PROCESS IN NIGERIA’S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: THE ROLE OF LEGISLATIVE AIDES (2015-2019)

LAWMAKING PROCESS IN NIGERIA’S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: THE ROLE OF LEGISLATIVE AIDES (2015-2019)

1. 1. Background to the Study

 

Baron de Monstesquieu, in his book, The Spirit of Laws published in 1748, defined "legislative power as that for enacting temporary or perpetual laws and the amending or abrogating of those already made". It can be deduced that the primary purpose for the creation of the legislature was as a result of man’s quest to improve the polity, ensure good governance, rule of law and protect human rights which are essential ingredients required for development through lawmaking.

From the foregoing, all other primary functions of the legislature i.e. oversight and representation aim to improve on existing laws, abrogate obsolete laws and or make new laws to ensure development of the society. There is a growing recognition of the connection between laws and development and laws and good governance. It will be correct to say that of all the three core functions of the legislature: Lawmaking, Oversight and Representation, lawmaking appears to be the most existential reason for the legislature.

The application of this principle in the American Constitutional doctrine mandates a rigid power separation whereby the legislature exercises all powers of legislation except if and when delegated to any other authority. The Nigerian Constitutionalism is modeled after the American; hence the Nigerian National Assembly pursuant to the provisions of section 4 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is vested with all Federal Legislative powers to “make laws for peace, order and good governance in the territory of Nigeria and other parts thereof”

Nwabueze (2003, p 180) citing Friedrich Von Hayek (1982) on Julius Paulus of the 3rd century

 

A.D described legislation “as among all inventions of man the one fraught with the gravest

 

consequences, more far-reaching in its effects even than fire or gun powder”. The laws enacted by Rome provided not only an imposing architecture of government but also a sublime instrument for order, peace and regularity. Legislation is therefore an instrument of control and coercion of the individual and the society and an expression of the supreme powers in a state, which is a distinctive mark of a country sovereignty and status of an independent state. The legislature that has the power to make laws is the harbinger of the sovereign power of the state.

Since legislation is an indispensable instrument of government as every activity of government require the authority of an enabling law, the process must be done with due diligence and not in a haste. In a constitutional government legislative proposals are usually required to be presented in the form of a bill, with the precise wordings of the provisions fully set out, and thereafter to be put through a winding process of long- drawn debates in the assembly and it’s Committees, during which the substance of the proposed law, the meaning and the implication of its wording are examine in details.

Therefore, with the legislator who is already inundated with other services in the plenary and the constituency, there is need for a compliment of support staff- bureaucratic and personal to effectively and efficiently carry out this onerous task of lawmaking. In Nigeria, Federal legislators are entitled to 5 legislative aides classified into five cadres: Senior Legislative Aide (SLA), Legislative Aide (LA), Legislative Aide Assistant (LAA), Personal Assistant (PA) and Secretary. With a combined population of senators and members of the House at 469, the total number of aides employed by the National Assembly Service Commission is 2,354 at a given Session of the National Assembly, in addition to other aides employed by the leadership of the National Assembly.

 

Beyond the numbers however, is their competence which could be attributed to the level of their education and specialization. This is paramount to the extent that personal aides compliment the inadequacies of their principals in terms of educational qualification, expertise, public service experience and exposure. The dearth of aides with high-level technical capacity in African parliaments implies that some legislators would not have the benefit of good briefs from their aides on issues to be debated in the legislatures, due to lack of experience given the relatively short history of the parliament. In addition, the high turnover rate of legislators also meant a high level of turnover of legislative aides in each session. According to Hamalai (2015) legislative sessions since 1999 witnessed an average return of 30% which has reduced to 16% in recent years unlike advanced countries with up to 80% re-election rate.

The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended conferred on the National Assembly the powers to determine through an Act the composition and roles of the compliment support staff pursuant to section 51. ‘there shall be a clerk to the National Assembly and such other staff as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly ,and the method of appointment of the Clerk and other Staff of the National Assembly shall be as prescribed by that Act”. The “such other staff” envisaged in the Constitution should include the legislative aides. However, in enacting the National Assembly Service Commission Act, 2014 as amended, the Legislators did not consider the inclusion of the Legislative aides and assigning roles to them as part of the essential support staff of the National Assembly but instead the Commission issued guidelines pursuant to section 13 (1) and (2) of the Act on “Appointment and Management of Legislative aides for Senators and Members of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly” (Revised Guidelines, 2019).

 

According to the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) publication 2019 guidelines on the appointment and management of legislative aides in the National Assembly, their functions include but not limited to conducting research, drafting bills, motion and lead debate, researching state and federal policy issues and legislation, prepare briefs, speeches, managing the principals’ office, handling protocol arrangements, liaising with Committees and other National Assembly Departments on behalf of their principals.

The guideline is non-binding and lack enforceability. Worse still, the letters of appointment of the legislative aides specifically states that “their appointment is at the pleasure” of each legislator. Whereas the role of the bureaucracy has been expressly provided for in the National Assembly Service Commission Act (NASC) 2014 as amended, those of the legislative aide are drawn from parliamentary practices and procedures. Awah (2013) also justified the duties of legislative aides by stating that their roles are usually elastic and may be overstretched because they monitor legislation through the Committee review stage and on the floor.

It is their role in lawmaking i.e. drafting bills, and motions, conducting research and preparing lead debate for or against pending bills under consideration before the House - that is the subject of this research. The researcher has taken the 8th session as a reference point because the period recorded the passage of high number of bills estimated at 515 bills, YIAGA Africa (2019) of which only 80 were assented to. The President declined assent on most of the bills on the ground of duplication, errors in drafting, wrong choice of language, over-lapping functions, and inadequate financial implication of such legislation. Since most of the rejected bills were private member bills, this research argues that the legislative aides have not played their expected role at every stage of the bill consideration.

 

Statement of the Research Problem

The role of legislative aides in the lawmaking process in the Nigerian National Assembly has not been given its rightful place under the law and parliamentary practices and procedure. The Nigeria Constitution, 1999 as amended is silent on the issue of the appointment of legislative aides unlike in some advanced democracies where the conditions for appointment of legislative aides are derived directly from specific constitutional provisions. There is therefore no legal framework that bestows specific functions on the aides in the process, except to the extent as may be delegated to them by their principals.

While bureaucratic staff enjoy job security and clearly defined conditions of service as contained in the National Assembly Service Act (NASA), 2014 (as amended) , the legislative aides serve their principals under such conditions as might have been determined by the National Assembly Service Commission in collaboration with their principals in whose pleasure they serve. The implication of this is that their tenure of office is subject to whims and caprices of their principals. For example the letter of appointment issued by the National Assembly Service Commission to the legislative aides clearly states, among other conditions that: “Your appointment is at the pleasure of (name of Legislator) and subject to all other conditions applicable in the Public Service” (2011 Orientation Paper). The implication of the above condition is that the member can terminate the appointment of the Aide at any time he loses confidence in such aide. The later position predisposes them to high labor mobility at the expense of institutional memory loss and experience. For example under the 8th session of the National Assembly, it was observed that the office of the Senate President and his Deputy exited 50% of their aides and employed new aides’ mid-term of their tenure. The implication of which, aides with experience in bills drafting have been lost and the newly employed aides will require time and training to master the act of bill preparation and Committee work. According to Ladan (2019), duplication of functions, drafting errors, financial implications among others were some of the reasons cited by the President for declining assent to some passed bills of the 8th session of the National Assembly (2015-2019). When it is considered that majority of the rejected bills were private members’ bills which required inputs of the members’ personal staff (legislative aides), the competence of the aides in the lawmaking process becomes very starkly exposed.

Next is the issue of remunerations of legislative aides in the National Assembly. It may be recalled that progress had been made that aides salaries were paid directly to them through their banks, unlike in the 4th and 5th assembly when it was paid through their principals. However legislative aides have consistently received their salaries late and have had some of their allowances stopped without notice resulting in low morale and motivation. De Gregorio (1994) discovered that when a member of staff is motivated by loyalty, members are more willing to involve them in the policy process than when they are motivated by personal interests.

As posited by Ereke (2020), legislative aides are key in the lawmaking process with experience covering areas such as bill analysis and scrutiny, legal drafting, administrative and political matters, etc .Nevertheless, the number of bills declined assent calls such avowed competencies to question. Given the foregoing, there emerges a heightened concern for this dissertation thus: if indeed legislative aides performed their duties effectively, why were several bills rejected by the President? Against this backdrop, this study assessed the performance of legislative aides in the legislative process; determine how legislative aides contributed to the ineffectiveness of the lawmaking process under the 8th session of the National Assembly? And advocate measures to enhance their performance in the lawmaking process. Table 1.2.1 in appendix i presents the summary of some of the bills declined assent in the 8th session of the Nigeria’s National Assembly.

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