The National Assembly, especially its increasingly beleaguered and embarrassed leadership may consider itself superior to any state legislature. But that superiority complex is increasingly being checked by events elsewhere.
On March 18, 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu dropped his latest clanger when he imposed a state of emergency on Rivers State, suspending the governor and the State House of Assembly for six months. With the military moving into the Government House in Port Harcourt under Ibok Ete-Ibas, Nigerians have been forced to relive the days before 1999 when soldiers clad in khakhi freely desecrated government houses around the country.
The state of emergency imposed by President Tinubu who considers himself a democrat has provoked a fierce backlash across the country, especially as it not only offends the 1999 Constitution but was a clear presidential hatchet job conceived and completed by Nyesom Wike,to uproot Similanayi Fubara with whom he has been having a running battle.
In a facile attempt to comply with the constitution, President Tinubu sought the consent and complicity of both houses of the National Assembly. Not much was expected of the 10th National Assembly, which will go down as probably the most docile in the history of Nigeria in terms of defending Nigeria’s constitution from abuse by a power-drunk executive, though. On Thursday, March 20, both Houses of the National Assembly duly approved what is the most savage attack on Nigeria’s constitution in many years.
In a democracy, a docile and discredited legislature is a serious clog in the wheel of progress and a dreadful curse.
Even before an opportunity presented itself for the National Assembly to defend Nigeria’s constitution, it had become clear that if any such opportunity came up, the leadership would fluff it. For weeks now, the senate president’s popularity has only dipped further following the suspension of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial Zone in the National Assembly. The the senator suspended from the senate for supposedly flouting senate rules has taken to dragging the senate leadership on various international platforms and media.
Nigerians have no doubt that presently, the executive, judiciary, and legislature are made up of men and women who have signed an unwritten code of conspiracy against Nigerians. These men who are first political merchants before patriots and are not in any way servants would put their personal interests against the interest of Nigerians. These men who lack courage or independence of any kind prefer groupthink and would put their personal interests above the national interest.
These men have absolutely no qualms setting their personal interests against the national interest. They are the reason Nigeria has never had good leaders or good leadership. They are the reason Nigeria’s boast of independence remains largely empty many decades later.
Democracy is not a perfect form of government. There is no perfect form of government anywhere. But democracy is what it is, and many people consider it safe because it offers the best guarantees. In countries still trying to find their feet institutionally and developmentally, democracy offers the best guarantees.
In Nigeria, which has taken in all manner of diabolical struggles since independence, democracy is the only option provided the key players are prepared to play by the rules.
It is not the case as things stand.
Kene Obiezu,
