FCT Senatorial Candidate Osho Blames NASS For Buhari’s Underperformance

The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the FCT Senate seat, Olanrewaju Osho, has described the ninth National Assembly headed by Ahmed Lawan as an appendage of the executive.

Osho said this in his assessment of the ninth assembly during an exclusive interview with THE WHISTLER.

The development advocate noted that the ninth assembly did not exert its independence and stand on the side of the people.

He scored the assembly high on the passage of the electoral act and Petroleum Industry Bill.

Excerpts

What is your assessment of the 9th national assembly in terms of performance and oversight?

I think the landmark achievement of this national assembly, was the electoral act, it’s a game changer of some sort, like someone said, it’s as if God put the national assembly people to sleep when he was getting them to look at the act because naturally the context, nature, and character of the people as we have known them is such that they wouldn’t have wanted an electoral system that is progressive and that can move the country forward.

So, we all agree that this one will move the country forward, at least by them accepting the electronic transmission aspect of it. This generated a lot of rules and crimes but eventually, the president accepted it, so to me, this is the landmark and that is why everybody that has hope believes the election will be okay and that is what brought us to this particular threshold.

Secondly the disability bill, the disability bill is also passed and it has left the establishment of a disability commission, headed by one of our own, (IGLP) Idris Lalu. Although the national assembly is not in charge of implementation but passing the bill. But we hope that they will be able to do that. So, to the best of my knowledge, these are the two areas I will feel that they performed.

What about the petroleum industry bill?

The petroleum industry bill is very good. You know the 8th assembly failed in that allocation. But again, the implementation is another thing, but we can always review whether it is holistic enough. The act allows its review and amendment.

What about the shortcomings?

The shortcomings are that they were appendages of the executives, they didn’t really exact their independence, and stand for the people. Until we have a fully independent national assembly, the executive will continue to underperform. Because nobody to make them stand on their toes, and keep the promises they have made to the people. That is a very big one and they have several opportunities to send a strong signal to the executives that they are not their appendage, but they always fail to rise.

Can you mention one or two opportunities that you think they would have taken to send the right signals?

One of the opportunities is whenever the president is traveling, he doesn’t hand over authority to the vice. The national assembly ought to have passed a motion that the president can not travel and leave the country in labour without anybody actively in charge of the nation.

Secondly, on the issue of corruption, you know they themselves are corrupt and we all know that Nigeria is becoming more and more corrupt. Like the issue of the auditor general that single-handedly embezzled funds, they should have holistically made a motion, bill, or act that they do not allow such kind things to happen in the system.

And they are trying to work against the people, this water bill that they are trying to pass overnight. from some bills that they show support for and the leadership of national assembly show support for and tried in smuggling it, they didn’t show that they where on the part of the people.

A lot of bills were passed without due diligence, they didn’t pass through the first and second readings but were done in secrecy. So, the transparency level of the national assembly was low. And the communication between them and the people they represent is very poor.

I expect a national assembly that has a monthly briefing to speak to the nation and address them or have a feedback mechanism.