Man ordinarily and by nature is a political animal or an outcast like "a bird which flies alone according to Aristotle in the 4th BC in his book : "Politics" Book 1. Thomas Hobbes further clarifies that interaction between man in the state of nature is predicated on the survival of the fittest in that the strong oppress the weak. This is as a result of the absolute freedom enjoyed by man which has no limit. Not until an agreement is reached where every person in the society relinquish some or all of their rights for the common good that a representative government should emerge from this barbaric and natural state. However, a typical model of representative government emerge from this ruins of the stone age and state of nature characterized by nasty, brutish and short. This era eclipsed the brutal relics left behind.
Direct democracy can be traced to Athens where all men of the society gather at a particular place to deliberate on issues of the city-state as they surface and pass lasting resolutions on different occasions. The European continent has largely influenced the African civilization in myriad of ways and most importantly one of its enviable bequest or legacy was democracy which favors adequate representation of the interest of the people in the legislature or parliament. It is quite important at this point to clearly say that this discourse or essay shall purposefully be based on the parliament or an exposition on the parliament in relation to European and African ideals. It is actually not true to say that the European forced upon the Africans the Democratic values but in the same vein it is also correct for at one time or the other there exist in the African society a traditional form of democracy though not in line totally with the modern democratic values as operated by Some European countries and also the USA. However, it must be carefully said that it is indeed a bequest well received from the Europeans. The truth in the real sense is that we inherited the modern democratic values from the Europeans and the region known as the USA when Africa was subjected to colonialism. It is noteworthy at this point that democracy whether under presidential or parliamentary dispensation and under the unitary or federal regime is a guarantee for adequate, if not totally true, representation of government. The whole essence of the parliament is defeated if the parliament fails in its traditional functions which are oversight, representation and legislation.
The whole essence of Parliament emerge as stated earlier when the people decided put in place certain laws to govern their affairs. Thus, the importance of man-made laws and the institution created by such laws and with such powers to legislate or better still, make laws vested on this institution. This institution that makes law is called the legislature or parliament. The variations in terminology is irrelevant and the differences manifest from region to region as exemplified as Senate and Chambers of Deputies in Italy, Senate and House of Representatives in Nigeria, Federation council and State Duma in Russia, National People's Congress in China, Senate and National Assembly in France, Bundesrat and Bundestag in Germany. Save China, they all practiced a bicameral legislature where we have the upper house and lower house respectively. As of October 2015, somewhat less than half of the world's national legislatures are bicameral according to "Inter-Parliamentary Union database: Structure of parliaments"(www.ipu.org).
A bicameral legislature operates where the legislators are divided into two separate assemblies, chambers or houses. Bicameralism is different from unicameralism where all of the members deliberate and vote as a single group. The two houses in bicameral legislature deliberate on bills differently and in the end as a single unit pass it into law. Often, the mode of election or selection of members into this houses vary from country to country employing differing criterion. For instance, in the USA, selection into the Senate and Congress is by election where persons cast vote for their respective representative at such level. This is actually the same with Nigeria where the mode of appointment of legislators into the federal legislature is by election. The provision of the Nigerian Constitution clearly set out the mode of election where each states shall be divided by the Independent National Electoral Commission into three constituencies for election into the Senate while the agency named above shall divide the whole of the federation into 360 constituencies for election into the House of Representatives by virtue of section 72, 1999 constitution.
It is in fact no doubt that the most powerful organ of government is the parliament. The parliament would always remain the voice of the people as all the legislators represent every person from each division of the country and they are very much accountable. It must be pointed out that it is the law made by this organ that guides the operation of a country and this lawmaking power should not however rubbish the fact that the parliament itself is a creation of the law and that the law vested in it its powers. Thus, its actions should be at any level of legislative processes be according to the spirit of the law. It also check the excesses of the executive by refusing to pass a self centered bill that is not in the interest of the majority of the people and also serve as a watchdog on the executive in the course of the discharge of duties particularly in the case of the appropriation bill.
There is a very wide and great distance between the integrity of the African Parliamentarians and European Parliamentarians. It has been successfully evidenced by various statistics in the past that African legislators are very corrupt very greedy and stinkingly avaricious. However, this does not paint as saints some European legislators but the high handedness, flamboyant lifestyle and avaricious nature of the majority of African Legislators put a great blemish on the integrity of this institution on the African soil. According to the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Abdelwahad Radi, who said carefully that: "It is clear that casting a ballot every few years is no longer enough for an electorate. It wants more democratic engagement between it and the political institution it elects." Good governance also relies most importantly if not totally on the legislative institutions in the discharge of their allocated duties. This is the reason why the best governments in the world have the best parliament. According to the Legatum Institute Index Report in September, 2016, Switzerland has the best government followed closely by New Zealand, ...,Canada and, ...United Kingdom and, ...also The USA is on the 11th on the list. It is clear that no African Country is on the first 25 list at all in the world.
Also, a joint report from the Inter-Parliamentary Union and United Nations Development Program in Geneva/Kampala on the 22nd April, 2010 has it that — Parliaments today are facing greater public scrutiny and pressure than ever before with fundamental questions on their ability to hold governments to account, but they have never been more essential to the political life of a country.
The first Global Parliamentary Report addresses certain problems faced by contemporary parliaments when it examined "the Changing Nature of Parliament" and thus proffer rough but not totally perfect solutions when it argues that parliaments must stay closely attuned to public needs and expectations of the institution and ensure sustained and strategic efforts are made to meet them if they are to help address the very low-levels of trust they currently hold." It is very much apposite to point out that apart from legislators being very corrupt, the pressures they faced from the people is so great like never before in this contemporary time. African Parliament are very many among the most corrupt parliament in the world who have dropped the culture of democracy and forgotten their aims in safeguarding and protection of the interest of the people who they represent.
There are so many challenges facing the contemporary parliaments which was highlighted in the paper presentation at the conference held in June 16, 2016 by the (IPU) Inter-Parliamentary Union where the challenges include: The inability of contemporary legislature to imbibe the culture of democracy, the tussle of unequal power relation between the Executive and the Parliament, Lack of parliamentary reforms, the composition of the Parliament, Public Pressures and Public inter alia. But the IPU state clearly that building a strong parliament lies in the resilience and responsiveness of such parliament to the needs of the people.
To round off this article, I must admonish the great Nigerian nation of many diversities of over 250 ethnic groups and over 400 languages which comprise majority and minority groups. The country has succeeded over the years to safeguard and protect the Interest of these minority groups to some extent and prevent eventual domination of the minority groups by the majority groups. This has been sustained for many years through the institution of the parliament. The Nigerian nation have had 7 Assemblies of legislators where the current Assembly of Senate President Bukola Saraki is the 8th Assembly. The Nigerian Constitution had been altered by all the Assemblies of legislators Nigeria have had just three times compared to the 27 amendments out 33 proposed amendments in which the USA constitution had undergone.
This setback after 57 years of independence is brought about by the issue of diversity and the legislators themselves who have failed woefully in their primary duties. Until all legislators realized their functions according to the oath of office in which they have sworn, we would still not move forward in terms of making responsive laws to the needs of the people. And also, the personality of legislators we are electing to represent our interest must be put into critical concern. We should stop electing intellectually derailed persons and traders of grammars into the parliament. Legislators no longer give returns to their people regards their duty in the parliament but we should consider what such person we are electing is going to represent and ensure through adequate criticism that he ensures he achieve this aims and he must from time to time return to his constituency and give his people returns from the house.
Finally, good governance is very important and very vital to the life of a nation in order to improve the standard of living of the people. This is aggregated from the needs of the people through the parliament. The aims and objectives of every government is to protect the life, safeguard the property and promote the welfare of the people. It is very paramount and thus, parliament must strive that such needs is met and not deviate from their primary duties.
Written by:
Yemi LA_Poet
YUSUF-AMUDA Lateef Adeyemi
Faculty of Law, OAU, Ile Ife.
January 3, 2017.
07086836478.
