WOULD THE LEGISLATORS ALSO GAG THE CITIZENS WHO VOTED THEM TO POWER?

Those ubiquitous legislators are always in the news for controversial reasons! When the brazen principal officers among them were not championing budgets padding for illicit constituency projects appropriation gains, they would rather amend the Nigerian Constitution to favour their egotist tendencies or demand for constitutional immunity like Mr. President and his Vice; Governors and their deputies; or depriving the downtrodden Nigerians, whom they have consistently mis-legislated in areas of inalienable rights in order to keep them in perpetual slavery!

When the Senate President's trial in respect of false and fraudulent assets declaration at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), progressed in 2016, the legislators quickly initiated an amendment of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Bill for them to take over constitutional duties of the Bureau from the Executive! EIGHTY (80) of them also abandoned the Senate Chambers in solidarity to attend court with Saraki and later collected fraudulent sitting allowances!

When the House of Representatives Speaker, and about 16 Principal Officers, were accused of budget padding and exposed to the whole world as a bunch of corrupted persons, by Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, Chairman of the Finance Committee, he was promptly suspended for twelve months of legislative sittings!
Senate rejected the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu, the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, twice because he intensified the anti-corruption crusade against legislators of the 8th NASS Assembly and they also threatened not to approve the nomination of 26 INEC Commissioners whose names were forwarded for approval until Magu was sacked as anti-graft agency head!
When Senator Dino Melaye launched an anti-corruption book titled, "Antidote For (To) Corruption" in June 2016, Senator 'Bukola Saraki and Hon.Yakubu Dogara, promptly purchased 469 copies for N23.450 million naira at a cost of N50.000 thousand naira each, on behalf of all NASS Legislators!

For SIXTEEN years of consecutive Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Administrations, 1999-2015, power struggle between the two tiers of government at the federal level, aided by institutional corruption with impunity, had free reign; and the spill over and ripple effects are still playing out in 31 months of the Change mantra of the All Progressives Congress (APC), even under the watchful eyes of President Muhammadu Buhari, all because of the NASS Leadership COUP led by 'Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, who still defiantly hold sway against PARTY SUPREMACY!
Their most recent political escapade is an obnoxious and masses unfriendly bill, titled NGO Regulation Bill, which was mooted and sponsored by two legislators; Honourables 'Duro Faseyi and Umar Baba Jubril, on 20th October, 2015 and 2nd June, 2016, respectively, and a separate Civil Society Committee of Nigeria Bill, by Hon. Douye Diri, on 15th June 2016, which in September 2017, scaled through SECOND READING at the House of Representatives (HOR)!
The said Bills, according to the aggrieved human rights bodies, constituted infringements to the fundamental rights of the masses and would therefore violate CITIZENS right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association and non-discrimination, and that they were also inconsistent with Sections 39, 40, and 42, of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended), and should therefore be rejected by all patriotic citizens of Nigeria SINCE VERY FEW LEGISLATORS RAISED OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE BILLS!

Provisions of the NGO Regulation/Civil Society Committee of Nigeria Bills will, if passed into law, COMPEL all Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations, (CSOs), all Organised Religious Organisations (Christian or Islamic), and sundry human groups, working on HUMAN RIGHTS activities, to register under the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), or with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), like political parties with a view to forcefully put them under extra burden of registration, though these groups are legal entities guided by established laws, conventions and statutes of the Companies and Allied Matters (CAMA), under which all NGOs are securely registered!

Although, the legislators have denied that the NGO Bill, had no intention to regulate CHURHES AND MOSQUES, but it is on record that a government Agency ,Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria.(FRCN) , in 2017, attempted to both gag and regulate religious organisations by compelling their General Overseers, General Superintendents, Archbishops, Chief Imams, etc, to retire at the age of 70, and were FORBIDDEN, in the course of the compulsory retirements, to hand over their offices to spouses or relatives! BUT THAT ACRIMONOUS DIRECTIVE WAS VETOED BY PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, WHO DIRECTED THAT STATUS QUO BE MAINTAINED!

In view of all of the above, a group comprising of 23 NGOs, under the aegis of Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN), on 3rd November, 2017, in a 19-paragraph affidavit, filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking an order of the court to declare as unconstitutional and unlawful, the repulsive NGO Regulation Bill, which provisions also contradicts Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, by seeking to register, and regulate NGOs who defend human rights and the court to stop NASS from further deliberating on the said Bill by virtue of Section 46 (1) of the same Constitution.

It is no wonder these legislators are desperately bent on putting down every opposition to their inordinate ambition of calling the shots and subtly threatening the authority of the Executive. They have dabbled into all manner of self-imposed duties which have no bearing with their constitutional appointments, which have back-lashed and gravely conflicted with the urgent oversight of the 2018 Budget proposals, a well-crafted legal document which was discredited by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who stood SURETY for Nnamdi Kanu, the FUGITIVE IPOB LEADER, as a "fictitious document"?

They also complained that because the 2017 Budget Appropriation was yet to be executed half-way, the new 2018 Budget would not be ready for the re-introduced January-December financial year proposal and have unilaterally extended the life of the 2017 Budget to the end of the first quarter, March 2018!
There is no iota of doubt that the National Assembly legislators who are members of the second tier of government at the national level and are saddled with the constitutional duties of making laws for good governance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, are bewitched by an accursed inheritance of inordinacy bequeathed to them by their immediate predecessors in office, is presently playing out to set them on collision course with the Executive and the entire mass of the Nigerian people!

In 2015, ex-President Ebele Jonathan, withheld his assent to the, "Constitution of the Federal Republican of Nigeria (Fourth Alteration) Act 2015," but queried the legislators' decision to whittle down SOME EXECUTIVE POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY!
The legislators decided to test the President's VETO at the apex Supreme Court but were asked to maintain status quo as Jonathan lost the Presidential election and the matter died naturally!
History has repeated itself in 2017, because these 8th NASS Legislators have boasted to override President Buhari, if he VETOED any part of the latest wobbling constitutional amendments!

THE IMMENSE CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS OF NIGERIAN LEGISLATORS!
In Section 4 (1) - (9) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, legislators are empowered (in a nutshell), (a) to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List set out in Part I of the Second Schedule to the Constitution, to the exclusion of the State Houses of Assembly; and (b) matters in the Concurrent Legislative List and any other matter with respect to which it is empowered to make laws in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Federal Constitution.
They are also backed by law to carry out legislative oversight functions on both the Private and Public Institutions, especially the Ministries Departments and Agencies, (MDAs), for the purposes of CHECKS AND BALANCES, to ensure probity, equity in appropriation and execution in budgetary transactions of government at the Federal platforms.
Under Sections 88 (1) (2)-89 (1) (2), legislators have powers to conduct investigations into any matter or thing with respect to which it has power to make laws; and the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, Ministry or government charged, or intended to be charged with the duty of or responsibility for executing or administering laws enacted by NASS and disbursing or administering moneys appropriated or to be appropriated by NASS; EXPOSE CORRUPTION, INEFFICIENCY OR WASTE IN THE EXECUTION OR ADMINISTRATION OF LAWS WITHIN ITS LEGISLATIVE COMPETENCE AND IN THE DISBURSEMENT OR ADMINISTRATION OF FUNDS APPROVED BY IT ........ETC!

WHO OVERSIGHTS THE CORRUPT LEGISLATORS STILL WALKING FREE?
But outside of these spheres, the legislators have become busy-bodies and meddlesome interlopers as they struggle very unsuccessfully, to take over executive functions and power from President Muhammadu Buhari at every opportunity, through spurious interpretation of their oversight functions, when constitutional INTERPRETATION OF LAWS is the sole function of the JUDICIARY and PROSECUTION OF OFFENDERS, REST WITH THE EXECUTIVE!

Should Nigerians wonder why Ibrahim Magu's confirmation was rejected twice and why Senator Ali Ndume was suspended for SIX LEGISLATIVE MONTHS OF 181 DAYS because he contradicted his colleagues?
Legislators that are claiming relevance through the Constitution have messy antecedents:
*Not less than 15 Senators are under EFCC investigations for corrupt enrichment;
* Saraki has been ordered for re-trial at the CCT, for fraudulent declaration of assets between 2003-2011, when he served as Governor of Kwara State; * Corrupt ex-governors are members of the "hallowed chambers"; and
* Some of them conspired to forge the Senate Rules to get into office by hook or crook!

TIME TO EXPOSE THESE ENEMIES OF THE MASSES IS NOW!
We advocate that the WHISTLE BLOWERS in conjunction with the NGOs, CSOs, Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER), Stand Up For Nigeria (SUN), SERAP and all downtrodden Nigerians whose sweat and blood constitute the common wealth being looted by these reckless and heartless politicians, should dig out the legislators' SKELETONS and expose the OSTRICHS, whose heads are buried in the sand!

LET'S NAME, SHAME THE CROOKED LEGISLATION WHO ARE HIDING BEHIND OVERSIGHT FUNCTIONS TO CAUSE HAVOC AND KILL THE OBNOXIOUS AND ANTI-CITIZENS NGO AND CIVIL SOCIETY COMMITTEE OF NIGERIA BILLS, PENDING AT THE NASS, NOW!
"Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people."



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.