MAKING LAWS IN NIGERIA
I took the trouble to describe how laws are made in Britain and America because Nigeria’s legislature is supposedly patterned after them. If you have understood what I described above, you have an idea of how laws are supposed to be made in Nigeria.
Let us recapitulate the legislative process in Nigeria. The 1999 constitution gives Nigeria a bicameral legislature: a lower house and an upper house, a National Assembly and a Senate. As in the U.S, the lower house is elected democratically (supposedly) and the Senate is elected on equal basis, each state sending five senators to Abuja.
The legislative process in both houses is supposed to work as in America. When the new political dispensation began, Nigerian legislators came to America to understudy how Congress works. They went home and, as expected, “Nigerianized” the new system. What does it mean to be a Nigerian?
To be a Nigerian is to have the genius for figuring out ways to steal. So the Nigerian National Assembly is nothing but an outfit for figuring out a way to rob the country.
Bills are introduced in the house and sent to the respective committees. The chair of each committee is supposed to study the Bill and have public hearings. Here, the real Nigerian rises to the occasion.
Those who introduced a Bill usually go to work and bribe the committee members…if not the Bill dies. Even government ministers, as testified by Mr. Fabian Osuji, the former minister of education, (my cousin, Fabian Osuji, the real Fabian Osuji, I hope that you read this lecture) have to bride the committee chairs to see policies introduced by their ministries voted on. If you have money to bribe someone your bill sees the light of day, voted on and passed.
If you have the money to bribe the executive branch of government, at least, those working there, if not the president himself (?) the president signs it into law. The chances are that the president would not be shown the Bill unless some one bribes the lower echelon persons working for him.
It takes bribery to even obtain supposedly free government forms. If so, you can only imagine how much it would cost for the minions and sycophants working for the president to bring a Bill to his attention.
Obasanjo claims to be fighting corruption. Fighting corruption indeed. Let us see. He jets around in a publicly funded plane. Does he refund the public when he uses that plane to fly to his home for pleasure? In America, the president can only use Air Force one for official business. If he uses it for personal business, such as fly to raise funds for his party, he must refund the public for the cost. If a public official uses a government vehicle for non-official purposes he must refund the public for such exercise.
5 thoughts on “The Legislative Process in Nigeria”
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This is good stuff. “When bad men combine,the good must associate”
paraphrasing Edmond Burke. How can we save our Motherland from the vampires and blood sucking parasites in the country? Talking is necessary but neither adequate nor sufficient.
pls keep previaling on our leaders to do the write thing at the time it is being needed. the rule of law is not effective as it ought to be. keep me posted o latest moves. thanks.
it was a very wonderful piece, i intend make refrences to it for my research. but what i wish to know here is, u talked perfecttly well of the american legislature how it works and many others, but u did not even talk about how the nigerian legislature is? how it works? its segments? nothing, u just killed it, made it look so terrible and not even worth rehabilitating, am sure there is someting good about it, besides what have u done to help or create change for others to follow, really we dont need people to tell us our faliures only that they should also tell us what to do to make us go forward. how will u write such a thing about your own country on the net. aint u suppose to be an ambassador of nigeria and hope that all will be well. its really disheartening.
wow ……………………lol
gosh! this had me reeling with laughter…so we do have a lot of people this bold in Nigeria. this is a typical scenario of the Nigeria state of affairs.
This deserves an applause… i wish this campaigns could be brought to the streets.
why fear this good-for-nothing men called leaders. but the uprising against them is crawling gently and of course we would get there, someday, we can’t lose hope on our beloved nation, NIGERIA!