The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recently moved in the right direction, when it passed the Bill extending the tenure of staff of the National Assembly by five years.
It must not be forgotten that the House of Representatives had earlier made significant history in similar direction when it passed the „Harmonized Retirement Age of Staff of National Assembly Bill.“
The bill which sailed through the House of Representatives without any rancorous sessions, sailed through the Senate with some vested interests challenging it, and is now before President Bola Tinubu to append his signature on it.
This piece is therefore centered on why President Bola Tinubu should sign this very important bill into law without delay.
On Monday, December 4, 2023, the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) held a congress at the Senate Conference Room in Abuja, and unanimously supported the need for five years extension of service of staff of the National Assembly.
In adopting that move, the congress wanted a situation where members would have the benefits of growth for better service delivery within the system; such as it is available in civilised parliamentary democracies in other climes.
When this progressive issue passed through the House of Representatives, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the Federal Civil Service, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), the National Judicial commission (NJC) and other stakeholders were all available to support it.
In the legislative arena all over the world, there is perpetual demand for legislative drafters, official reporters, committee clerks and scrutiny experts. Who says there is no superior wisdom in according the National Assembly the privilege to retain her remaining trained and experienced hands through the five years extension of service for parliamentary service in Nigeria?
This „Harmonised Retirement Age of Staff of National Assembly Bill“ is an idea which time has come for the workers of the assembly. At the time tertiary educational institutions, mostly our universities clamoured for retention of skilled experienced hands as institutional memories, a development that manifested in the increase in years of service, similar measure was thrown at the judicial arm of Government and the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT); the case of the National Assembly shouldn‘t be different.
The National Assembly is a research cum capacity based institution, constitutionally empowered concept of separation of powers.
As patriots, we all should join hands assiduously to save our constitutional cum representative democracy from stagnation and subjugation.
The benefits of this bill cannot be overemphasized, as legislative assignments are best mastered with reasonable length of years on it.
The National Assembly needs wholeheartedly experienced hands with abundant capacity built over the years on the job.“
However, records need to be put straight for posterity. For the avoidance of doubt, the legislature as the only symbol of democracy in Nigeria is still evolving and trying to develop its practice and procedures compared to the other two arms of government.
Recall that since 1979, when Nigeria had its transition from parliamentary to presidential system of government, the bureaucratic structure of the National Assembly has since been evolving and struggling to stabilise in the face of competing challenges.
Another setback was the intermittent military interferences in governance and suppression of the legislature during the reign of the military government, and the National Assembly had to contend with such debilitating scenario for decades.
Each of these interventions negatively impacted the legislative bureaucracy as well as the political arm of the National Assembly. In between the military interregnum, the legislature was treated more or less like an appendage of the executive arm, not as an independent arm of government in its own right.
The subjugation of the legislature, as earlier mentioned, naturally extended and impeded the growth of its bureaucracy.
It is interesting to note that until the return of democracy in 1999, and the creation of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) in 2000, the National Assembly bureaucracy was not totally independent.
Importantly too, it must be pointed out clearly that the National Assembly Service is distinct from the Federal Service due to its peculiar nature; it is an arm of government that operates differently in its own space with the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), to handle independently the parliamentary service.
In this vein, the independence of the National Assembly Service Commission is sacrosanct in the affairs of the National Assembly. This can be gleaned from Section 7 of the National Assembly Commission Act on power of delegation and certain restriction thereon.
Talking about the age of retirement of the National Assembly staff, this is not a constitutional provision, thus any amendment needs not be by the procedure for amendment of the constitution as being argued in some quarters.
– Afuye writes from Abuja.
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