REMARKS BY THE CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA, RT. HON. FEMI GBAJABIAMILA AT THE 2025 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OPEN WEEK HELD IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CHAMBERS, ABUJA, ON TUESDAY, 5TH JULY 2025.
“Reflections on the Growth of the House of Representatives Since 1999”
Good morning, Honourable members of the House of Representatives, distinguished Senators, eminent guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It is my honour and special pleasure to join you here this morning at this very special occasion, and to consider with you the journey the National Assembly has undertaken so far in our joint and continuing effort to build a democracy that meets the needs of our people, that serves our nations’ interests both here at home and on the international stage. For twenty years, from 2003 to 2023, my life revolved around this institution. I made lifelong friends here, celebrated with those who celebrated, and mourned with those who mourned.
The rhythms of this institution became the music of my life. On many occasions, I stood in the galley to speak on matters of importance to my constituents, as well as on matters critical to the nation. In my last four years here, my colleagues granted me the honour of sitting and presiding over this honourable House as Speaker. This is my first time back since I left here two years ago, and I find myself filled with nostalgia and a longing for times past. However, it is the nature of life that everything passes, and everything comes to an end, including life itself. At every juncture, in every arena, we must find it in ourselves to do the best we can so that when the moment passes, we can move forward in the certainty that all that should be done was done. I am truly honoured to be back here, however briefly. Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this privilege.
The legislature is the defining component of state structure that separates democracies from all other forms of government. Every nation in the world, whether a monarchy, an autocracy, or a military junta, will as a matter of necessity operate an executive and a judiciary. A democratic legislature exists to unite the people with the government by empowering a sovereign parliament to enact laws for the good governance of the nation, to oversee the nation's finances, and to provide an arena for public participation in the policy development process.
Consequently, everything that we do in the legislature is about maintaining that connection to the people on whose behalf we serve. When legislators debate a bill or motion in the chamber, we do so not as individuals expressing an opinion, but as representatives ensuring that the voices of our constituents are heard in the national arena and that their concerns and interests are factored into the legislative policy outcomes. When we hold public hearings, inviting stakeholders and members of the public into the legislative process, we do so because democratic governance is an open rather than opaque process built on the premise that when we join our heads together, and draw on the various experiences and contexts of all the different interests and tendencies that make up our country, we arrive at outcomes that are better than they would have been otherwise.
When we scrutinise the executive budget proposals in the various responsible committees, hold sessions for ministers and heads of departments and agencies of government to defend how they intend to spend public resources, we do that in the exercise of our constitutional and moral authority as guardians of the public purse. This responsibility is the most profound expression of representative democracy, vesting in the people’s representatives, rather than in kings, princes or potentates, the right to levy duties on the people and to ensure that charges to the public purse serve only to improve the circumstances of the people by developing public infrastructure, providing for the defence of the realm and guaranteeing the security and dignity of all the nation’s people.
For twenty-six years since our nation’s return to civil rule, generations of members of the national assembly and, indeed, in state legislatures across the country, have done the complicated and often thankless job of building that legislative tradition. They have accomplished this task without a roadmap, while navigating the unique realities of our political and cultural landscape. Before 1999, our last experiment with legislative governance had ended in 1993, and before then, in 1983. As such, there wasn’t much of an institutional memory to learn from; the conventions of parliamentary practice and procedure were a new experience.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria grants the National Assembly the responsibility to make laws for the good governance of the nation, to control the public purse, and to hold the executive to account. In 1999, those powers and responsibilities fell to ordinary men and women, most of whom had spent their best years as subjects in a military regime. Yet, the men and women who started here in 1999, ill-equipped as they were, built the foundations of a people’s parliament that has grown from strength to strength through each successive session, shaping the crucial conversations about our nation's future, intervening in matters of state to ensure the best outcomes for our people, passing legislation to build a more perfect union and serving as the voice of millions of Nigerians both here at home and abroad.
There have been moments when, in the opinion of some, this parliament has fallen short of expectations. However, thanks to the efforts of the thousands of people who work in these chambers — senators, representatives, aides, consultants and staff of all kinds — those moments have not defined the legislature; instead, they have been opportunities for learning, improvement, and growth through humility. That effort at continued development continues today in this 10th House of Representatives under the capable leadership of my brother, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abass GCON, the gifted Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu CFR, and a leadership team that includes some of the most accomplished individuals to ever serve in the federal legislature, bringing their years of knowledge and experience to help navigate our nation’s future at a time of transformational events here at home and across the globe.
It is a source of frustration that, nearly three decades later, the vast majority of our nation’s people still do not fully comprehend the legislative functions, powers, responsibilities, and limitations of each member of parliament and the institution. Many factors contribute to this. For one, the collapse of the local government system has created a situation where citizens now expect members of the legislature, particularly those in the National Assembly, to fill the gap in providing social services that would otherwise have been the responsibility of local government administrations. A member of the House of Representatives who isn’t actively engaged in providing education and healthcare facilities, who isn’t doing road construction and waste management, while delivering sustained empowerment for commercial activities, is not going to be a legislator for very long.
The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria did not envisage such a role for the legislator, and it did not make provisions for the legislator to perform in this capacity. Yet, political reality requires the legislator to meet these constituency demands by whatever means. This disconnect between responsibility and resources on the one hand and the public’s expectation on the other hand is one of the biggest threats to the legislature in our emerging democracy. More than any other institution of government, the legislature relies on the goodwill of the people to operate effectively. Here in the legislature, you do not command armies, and you cannot operationally direct the police or law enforcement. When you make laws, you are not involved in their implementation, and when you enact policies, you are not part of their execution. Even legislative oversight is an exercise in looking back – that is, you can only review what has already been done to see how well it was done. At every point, you require a public that is willing to give you the assumption of good faith until proven otherwise.
When that assumption of good faith is tied to your ability to perform functions that are frankly beyond your scope, it becomes a recipe for dysfunction and resentment. Dysfunction because the provision of social services is an executive function and must be done systematically through a coordinated policy process to ensure sustainability. For example, when the executive builds roads, there is a framework for maintenance through the Public Works Department. No legislator can provide that, nor should they be expected to. The dynamic replicates itself in healthcare, education and every other sector. And the resentment stems from a public that expects these services as a matter of course but resents how the legislator provides them through the appropriations process.
The journalists, citizen advocates and civil society practitioners who ask legislators why there aren’t enough classrooms, or primary health care facilities in their constituencies, who expect the legislators to provide water sources, build markets and roads, turn around every budget season and inundate the media with stories of “budget insertions,” forgetting that the appropriations process is the only instrument available to legislators to meet the expectations that their constituents have of them. As long as the voting public and the influencers in the media demand that legislators provide social services, and as long as the electoral viability of the legislator continues to depend on their ability to provide these services, this paradigm of dysfunction and resentment will persist to the detriment of the core legislative function of the National Assembly.
The ongoing efforts by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to restore a system of robust local government administration, built on adequate financing, independence, transparency, and accountability, are critical to the future of the national parliament and must be supported by all who have served and continue to serve in this institution. In advanced democracies worldwide, many of the quality-of-life issues that affect citizens daily are the responsibility of local governments. Everything from waste management to the regulation of local commerce, basic education, healthcare, and even community policing and security are local government functions. When local governments have the resources and independence to function as the constitution intended, then legislators are freed to legislate, develop policy, advocate for the greater good, and hold the executive to account. It is time to let legislators be legislators as God and the Constitution of our republic intended.
If we cannot agree on the place of the local governments in our political system, and if we cannot collectively undertake to do what is necessary to ensure that the local government institution has the political and financial independence, and the administrative capacity to function optimally, then we must consider alternatives to formalise the additional duties that have now become the responsibility of the legislators. The current system, which forces legislators to spend more time seeking and pursuing resource opportunities to meet constituency needs and expectations rather than developing the capacities required to be effective as lawmakers, legislative advocates, policymakers, and overseers of the public purse, as the constitution demands, is untenable in the long term. If we expect legislators to provide social services in their localities, then perhaps it is time for a national conversation to ensure our constitution reflects this, and the necessary resources are made available in a structured and efficient manner, allowing for transparency and accountability.
A democracy without a strong legislature and a robust legislative tradition is a promise deferred. For our democracy to survive, for our nation to thrive in this experiment of self-rule, we must build the legislature into a sturdy institution capable of leading the way on matters of policy innovation, equipped with the capacity to produce policy and enact quality legislation comparable to any other parliament in the world. The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), under the adept leadership of Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, and the National Assembly Library Trust Fund (NALTF), capably led by the veteran lawmaker, Honourable Henry Nwawuba, are both critical in this regard and deserve to be supported and sustained. I urge you, members of the National Assembly, to hold both institutions dearly and provide them with all they need to continue to serve you and our nation effectively. While you may not command armies, you can ensure that NILDS and NALTF are empowered to be their best, so that they become instruments of great authority and power for the legislature.
Since His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office in 2023, the National Assembly has proven itself a worthy “partner in daring,” as the President likes to say. This institution has worked to facilitate the implementation of the Renewed Hope Agenda through timely confirmation of political appointees, effective scrutiny and passage of budget proposals, and by providing an arena for thorough consideration of legislative policy proposals before they are enacted into law. Just about two weeks ago, after exhaustive work by the National Assembly, Mr President signed into law a slate of tax reform bills that promise to change the fiscal and monetary policy framework in the country for the better and for good. I thank you all most sincerely for continuing to be the partners in nation-building. I urge you to continue in this regard. Rest assured that this President, who is himself an alumnus of the National Assembly, will always hold you in the highest regard and will, in every way possible, continue to support the legislature to be the best version of itself.
The legislature is the cradle of democracy. It is here, in these chambers and hallowed halls, that we nurture our democracy to grow and meet, and even exceed, our best expectations. To serve in this place is a great honour that carries with it a profound responsibility. We must never lose sight of this. When the Second World War ended in 1945, the Allied powers came together and set the rules of the post-war years. Those rules have defined how the nations of the world interact for most of the last century. Today, those rules are being rewritten by advancements in technology, the ambitions of emerging countries that have now come into their own, and the efforts of world powers to retain their prerogatives in a changing world. In these times when the world is remaking itself, the legislature must be prepared to act to ensure that our people are not left behind and our nation’s interests are not sacrificed, as the rules of the global order are being rewritten. In this, and every other effort at nation-building, I will continue to be your partner and supporter, working in the best interests of this great nation.
I thank you for the honour of addressing you today. May God bless and keep you all. And God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
0 Comments