9th Assembly: Gbajabiamila Laments Rubber Stamp Tag as Lawan highlights achievements

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House of Representatives, have expressed regret over how some Nigerians have misunderstood the ninth National Assembly and incorrectly referred to it as a rubber stamp parliament.

According to Lawan and Gbajabiamila, the ninth National Assembly actually outperformed the five before it since 1999 in terms of scrutiny and high-quality legislation.

They made separate speeches during a welcome dinner for senators and members-elect for the 10th National Assembly that was held in Abuja on Monday night. The dinner was organized by the National Assembly management and the National Institute for Democratic and Legislative Studies (NILDS).

According to Lawan and Gbajabiamila, the nineth National Assembly’s performance-driven commitment to good governance resulted from a cordial partnership with the executive branch of the government.

Lawan stated in his address that as of July 2022, 874 bills had been presented in the legislative region alone. Of those, 162 had passed the third reading, and 104 had received the House of Representatives’ concurrence and the president’s consent.

The senate president said, “At the outset, the nineth Senate was mindful of the damaging effect of persistent conflict with the executive and the resultant impact on legislative activities. We were equally aware that a good working relationship is desirable and, indeed, imperative to achieve effective and efficient service delivery to the people.

“This approach to engaging with the executive has led to a misperception and misunderstanding, which has led many to tag the nineth National Assembly as a ‘rubber stamp’ assembly. Yet, our intention in preferring an engagement with the executive based on harmony and collaboration has been to better serve Nigeria by providing a safe atmosphere for national development.

“There is no doubt that this has proven to be beneficial to the people we represent. Compared to previous assemblies, the achievement of the nineth National Assembly in the area of law-making is attributable to harmonious executive-legislative relations, which, contrary to many expectations, need not be aggressive.”

In his remarks, Gbajabiamila claimed that certain Nigerians who referred to the ninth National Assembly as a rubber stamp assembly were mistaken because the legislative was not created to compete with the administration but to work in tandem with it to promote good government.

The speaker stated, “Rubber stamp has become a romantic language in the context of its usage in Nigeria, a very wrong description of relationship between National Assembly and the executive within the last four years.”

He urged the incoming federal representatives to build on the accomplishments of the previous assembly in order to improve the benefits of democratic government for Nigeria and Nigerians.

Gbajabiamila said, “Too many Nigerians are beginning to wonder if democracy is the right choice of governance and for democracy to meet legitimate expectations of the people, relevant institutions of government, must be made to function well.”