A member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade, who attended the 2010 Legislative Summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Kentucky, United States, spoke with OZIEGBE OKOEKI on lessons of the interface for African lawmakers.

What is the importance of the Legislative Summit in US?

It was an event that brought legislators from different continents together. We were exposed to so many issues that border on legislation and the legislature and the processes of legislation. We compared notes, we dealt with topical issues. You know, the legislature plays different roles in democratisation process in various continents. We looked at the relevance of legislature and legislators in the democratic scheme of things and, of course, the role of legislature as it concerns finance and budget, state expenses, public-private partnership in undertaking infrastructural development, how it should be done and the laws that should guide it and the rest of it.

In concrete terms, what did you learn from the summit?

One of the things I found very interesting was when we were looking at the roles of the legislature in budgetary allocation and state funding. And in the course of it, the guest speaker said that, as a legislator, I should not legislate anything to law that will make my grand children pay the debt they did not owe.

That speaks volume, and that is the extent that legislators must be very critical about every naira and kobo that is appropriated. Every legislator must be conscious of what he is contributing to and be sure that laws that are made are laws that would be able to stand the test of time.

Among the three arms of government, the legislature is first among equals. In Africa, it is the absence of just one arm of the government that leads to military dictatorship, and that is the absence of the legislature. Any coup in Nigeria and Africa is directly an elimination of the role of the legislature. And to realize the enormous powers conferred on legislators and legislatures under the various constitutions; and to know that the signpost for democracy and democratic rule is the presence of the legislature, which is one of the three arms of government.

And when you look at it critically, it is not by coincidence or error that when the constitution is actually setting out the roles of the three arms , the first that is dealt with is that of the legislature in Section 4 of the constitution. All other ones follow subsequently. And that shows the paramount recognition given to the legislature under the constitution.

In what other way is the legislature different from other arms?

It is the only body that has the largest number of representatives. The Lagos State House of Assembly, for instance, is made up of 40 members and all of them stood for election and won. That means they were actually sent by their people, by their mandate, and the vote of the people.

Sovereignty, they say, resides with the people and these people have entrusted unto you their own sovereignty to take decision on their behalf. So, you must take it so seriously and attend to it seriously as well. And that means that, as a legislator, you must endeavour to attend plenary always so that your people’s voice will always be heard when debates are on, when bills are to be passed into law and when topical issues are being debated. So, it is a way to like lubricate legislative awareness and to compare notes here and there.

What did you learn from the legislative/executive relationshp there?

We left Kentucky for Indianapolis where we visited their legislature. And we discovered that the whole governmental structure, Executive and Legislature is within the same precincts. They are housed in the same compound, unlike our own where you have the Assembly fenced separately from the Executive and the rest of them. I see that as a way of saying that, though the legislature is different from the executive, they are independent of themselves. But at the same time, they are inter-dependent. And when you are closer to yourselves and you meet yourselves every now and then, of course, that aura of togetherness, sense of belonging and brotherhood in the course of service to humanit, is actually underlined.

Furthermore, when we were taken through the legislative processes of lawmaking in Indianapolis, I also saw something that was striking. Here in Lagos, when bills come from the executive, it comes through the office of the Attorney-General. After the first and second reading, it is sent to the appropriate committee for public hearing before we take the committee report. If it is accepted, we take the resolution and do the third reading thereafter after a clean draft had been made.

But in Indianapolis, something striking was exhumed and that was to the effect that, it is almost the same process, but the second reading of bills is usually after the public hearing; our own second reading is before public hearing. So, while they are doing the second reading, they are taking into consideration in totality what people have said about the bill. So, it won’t be the opinion of the members alone that would allow the bill to sail through the second reading and go through public hearing. The opinion of the people is actually taken into consideration before the second reading. So, it will be now the opinion of the people with the views of the legislators that will now determine whether the bill will scale second reading.

As an individual, I think it is something we have to look at when we resume; and after debating it and the majority of us feels that it is better, then we have to amend our rules to adopt that position. It is not because it is done there, we want to look at the advantages and disadvantages of our procedure.




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