The legislature is the arm of government principally empowered with the responsibility to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the nation. It is the distinguishing feature of democracy. In other systems of governance like theocracy, monarchy or dictatorship, the legislature is non-existent and where it exists, its powers are often limited. In Nigeria, during the long periods of military intervention, the legislature was abolished, leaving the executive and the judiciary as the only two arms of government in military regime. The functions of the executive and the legislature are joined in the executive. This meant that the military made the laws and implemented them at the same time. We know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The first thing the military does when they forcefully take over is to suspend some sections of the constitution and govern by decrees. It is in this regard that people posit that the judiciary is the last hope of the common man. They believe that the judiciary will shield them from the rampaging dictatorship of the military and monarchs. However, history has shown that the judiciary has not lived up to the expectations of the common man whether during the military or democratic regimes. In military regimes in Nigeria, the Head of State simply makes decrees ousting the jurisdiction of the courts. They set up their own courts, usually called Tribunals and use them to kill or send to jail anybody they liked. Let us rather say that the common man was hopeless during military regimes in Nigeria. That was why Prof Aluko said that any country that gives its leadership to the military is finished.

In democratic regimes in Nigeria, the judiciary becomes too distant and too costly for the common man. Two thirds of the inmates in our prisons, now called correctional centres, are awaiting trials. These are people who are deemed innocent until they are proved guilty and are wallowing in prison because they do not have the wherewithal to pursue their criminal trials. The judiciary are limited in several ways. They cannot on their own bring up any case unless the case is brought to them by a party. They cannot go beyond the dictates of the law to give justice. This means that they only interpret the law, they cannot change it. In the colonial and military days, a judge will jail a freedom fighter as a rebel trying to overthrow the state because that is what the law says. Nelson Mandela was jailed for life by the judiciary for fighting to liberate his people from apartheid. They cannot go beyond the evidence to give judgement even if they know the truth. The poor and the common man always find it difficult and costly to gather all the evidence they need to find justice in our courts. So in most cases, judges give judgement without justice. In courts, the truth doesn’t matter, what matters is the evidence. Also the time it takes to get judgement in our courts makes it disheartening for the common man to get justice. As a lawyer, I was party to a case that lasted for 11 years in the FCT High Court before judgement was given. Another case in Enugu State High Court has lasted more than three years and has not passed beyond the preliminary stage. You cannot get a date for hearing in our appellate courts for the rest of 2020 because of the election cases in those courts which are given priority. The judiciary cannot check or balance any other arm of government since its duty is to settle disputes brought to it by parties. The judiciary is not accountable to the people because it is not the people that appointed them. They were not voted into power by the people so the people cannot remove them. They are accountable to their conscience, themselves, through the NJC and to God. Unfortunately for the common man, law is an ass that can be driven either way depending on the idiosyncrasies of the individual judge.

Related News

The framers of the constitution are aware of these inadequacies of the other arms of government. This is why it created the legislature and vested the powers of democracy in it. In a democracy, the law rules not the man. This simply means that the arm that makes the law actually rules because they build the foundation of leadership in a democracy. The legislature in addition to making laws are empowered to monitor and oversight the executive in the implementation of the laws they made. This makes them the supervisors of the executive. They are empowered to approve every important appointment of the leadership cadre in the judiciary and executive. All the Supreme Court Judges, President of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judges of the High Courts are approved by the legislature. Ministers, Chairmen and Director Generals of ministries and important parastatals are approved by the legislature. The legislature has the power to query, try and remove the executive if the executive is found wanting. No money can be spent by the executive without authorization by the legislature. The legislature can override the veto of the executive if the executive so uses the power of veto. The legislature can overrule the Supreme Court in subsequent cases simply by changing the laws upon which the Supreme Court based any judgement that did not accord to justice.  The powers vested on the legislature are so enormous that the framers of democracy made the decision that the legislature has to be composed of many people representing all sectors of the country. They are the pillars of democracy.

If the legislature fails, democracy fails. Indeed, the legislature is the hope of everybody, whether common or uncommon. In Nigeria, with the advent of the fourth republic, the legislature came in with a lot of baggage but also some experience. There are a lot of unsavoury experience we have had with some sessions of the legislature especially with respect to their squandering of our meagre resources. President Obasanjo referred to them many times as band of thieves and robbers. But one cannot also deny that when it mattered most in the democratic evolution of the fourth republic, they stood to be counted. The same Obasanjo who labelled the legislature as thieves was alleged to have bribed the legislature with N50m each for the members of the House of Representatives and N70m each for the Senators to be granted a third term in office, which would have inevitably truncated our democracy. The National Assembly rose against such move and disgraced such attempt by the executive by not even allowing the executive bill to pass the second reading in the Senate. Also during the regime of Umaru Yar’Adua, when he took ill and became physically incapacitated and failed to transmit the letter to the National Assembly to enable his then Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, act as the President, making the ship of the state drift uncontrollably towards the abyss, the legislature rose again and rescued our democracy by invoking the doctrine of necessity to install Goodluck Jonathan as the Acting President. They were commendably patriotic not partisan, national not sectional.

However, the emergence of the Ahmed Lawan Presidency of the Senate has brought another dimension to legislative finesse. During the 8th session of the legislature, budgets were approved about seven months into the next year. Every policy and plan of the government was either delayed, destroyed or withered down. The executive and legislature were simply incompatible and the masses suffered for it. But the Ahmed Lawan’s legislature has shown leadership. On coming in, he promised to quickly screen the ministers when the list was tabled in the Senate and he did. He promised to restore the budget cycle to January – December time table and he did. And in each occasion, he had to extend working periods of the legislature to achieve this. Even President Buhari, who has been blaming democracy for being too slow is now realizing that it is not democracy that is too slow but human errors in democracy that makes decision making too slow. The legislature must speedily conclude its amendment of the Electoral Act as it promised and guarantee Nigeria free, fair and credible elections. By the antecedents of this Lawan, he has promised on this and we believe he will do it. Contrary to public opinion, the last hope of both the common and uncommon men in a democracy is not the judiciary, it lies squarely in the legislature.