We applaud the Senate and House of Representatives’ 10th session for conducting the elections for their top officials in an orderly and civilized manner.
The bitter rivalries that had preceded the competitions were immediately put to rest at the conclusion when the losers congratulated the winners.
The 10th National Assembly has now been fully constituted, with Senator Godswill Akpabio (APC, Akwa Ibom) serving as the Senate’s President and Senator Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano) serving as the Senate’s Deputy President.
Tajudeen Abbas (APC Kaduna) was chosen as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Benjamin Kalu (APC Abia) was chosen as Deputy Speaker.
Although President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, have expressed their agreement with the Red and Green Chambers of the National Assembly, there is a nagging suspicion that the new administration has completely captured the government, despite Tinubu’s longstanding claim to be the ideal democrat.
We could be in store for a civilian dictatorship if the National Assembly fails to uphold its constitutional mandate. Given this, all of the nation’s pro-democracy, civil liberties, human rights, and media outlets must be vigilant and maintain the National Assembly’s independence while collaborating effectively with the Executive branch.
In addition to its primary duty of enacting laws, the legislative branch is obligated to uphold the checks and balances and separation of powers principles that are integral to the presidential form of government. In order to ensure due process, transparency, and accountability, they must take very seriously their responsibility to oversee how the money they appropriate to the executive and judicial branches is used.
In order to ensure that their own spending is transparent to the public, they must also engage in self-monitoring. After all, they speak for the people, not for themselves. We anticipate that the 10th National Assembly will support the fight against corruption by holding the anti-corruption organizations accountable and, as necessary, holding everyone in the current or previous regimes—regardless of their positions or political allegiances—responsible for how they handled public funds.
The practice of the Muhammadu Buhari appointees ignoring NASS summonses must not be tolerated. Our constitutional rights must be upheld throughout the nation, and the 10th National Assembly must stand with the people in this effort.
We make this statement in light of the racial profiling that occurred in Lagos during the most recent elections and the obstinate threat made by the Lagos State House of Assembly to seize non-indigenous people’s property.
Wherever they happen, such blatant violations of our constitutional rights need to be confronted and stopped in their tracks. We hope the 10th Assembly has a productive meeting.
