Long-serving lawmakers, asset to Nigeria’s legislature – Ndoma-Egba

The Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, on Saturday called for continuity in the leadership of the National Assembly, saying long-serving lawmakers were valuable assets to Nigeria’s legislature.
Ndoma-Egba told the News Agency of Nigeria in Calabar, Cross River State that the absence of constitutional provision for term limit for lawmakers was because the legislature “is a peculiar institution”.
He also stated that the stability in the Senate was largely due to the fact that more old members were returning “to provide stability and a pool for recruiting leadership”.
The Senate leader emphasised the need to strengthen the National Assembly, saying it remained an important institution for the sustenance of the nation’s democracy.
He also said his desire to seek another term in the Senate in 2015 was not for selfish reasons but to provide leadership and add value to the lawmaking process.
He said: “My sojourn in the National Assembly has nothing to do with me as a person.
“The National Assembly is a peculiar institution.
“For instance, if you become president tomorrow, you have a very elaborate bureaucracy that will service you.
“Your predecessor will give you a handing over note.
“So government continues, whether it is civilian or military.
“You take the judiciary, you have the hierarchy of courts.
“You go to the Customary Court, if you are not satisfied with their judgment, you go to the Magistrates’ Court, the High Court, Court of Appeal until you get to the Supreme Court.
“When you get to the Supreme Court, whatever it pronounces becomes judicial precedent and is binding on the lower courts.
“There is certainty.
“Because of its sophisticated archival system, if you are looking for a judgment between Agbokim and Etung given in 1893, you will find it.
“So in the Executive, you have certainty.
“In the judiciary you have certainty.
“But it is different in the National Assembly and parliaments the world over.
“This is because 109 senators, for instance, are equal.
” So for want of an appropriate term, I will say you have 109 sovereigns.
“In the House of Representatives, you have 360 sovereigns.
“You have a bureaucracy that services the National Assembly, but if you come to my office, I have my bureaucracy.
“It is part of my bureaucracy.
“Each of us has individual bureaucracy.
“And the legislative work needs your understanding of the rules, the understanding of the constitution and ability to network and create an appropriate working environment.
“So the day you are going, you go with everything you have acquired.
“In the legislature, there is no handing over note.
“And that is why in virtually any constitution, there is a term limit for the executive but no term limit for the legislature.
“Most members of judiciary have a retirement age.
“In the US, they do not have a retirement age.
“In Nigeria, there is a retirement age.
“When you get to 65 years, you may retire and when you get to 70, you must retire.
“But if you go to the National Assembly, there is an entry qualification: 30 years with School Certificate equivalent for the House of Representatives and 35 years for school certificate equivalent for the Senate, but there is no retirement age, there is no term limit.”
Ndoma-Egba also recalled the US experience to drive home the call for more experienced lawmakers at the National Assembly.
He said: “In established democracies like the US, if six serving senators lose their seats, it is considered an upheaval.
“For instance, for you to be Chairman, Rules and Business Committee of the US Senate, you must have spent an unbroken 26 years in the Senate.
“The two most experienced senators that we have are Senator David Mark and Senator Bello Gwarzo, who came in in 1999.
“If you combine both of them, they barely qualify to be Chairman, Rules and Business Committee of the US Senate,” Ndoma-Egba said.
He added: “May be in the future, Nigeria will get there but you can see the trend that we are moving there.
“You can now see the stability of the Senate because we are getting more and more old members returning.
“It is stabilising and providing a pool for recruiting leadership.
“It is not about me but there is the need for us to strengthen the National Assembly, which is the weakling of our democracy, even though it is the most important of our democracy.”