Recently, the House of Representatives began the process of passing a bill seeking to grant immunity to principal officers of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly. Immunity HouseofReps LegislativeImmunity Senate Lawmakers
for the substantial part of his four year reign over alleged breach of code of conduct and forgery of Senate rules and or the quest to enjoy similar privileges as the head of the executive arm of government, Nigerian lawmakers are now pushing to insert immunity in the constitution for its principal officers.
Consequently, the alteration is intending to extend immunity to four presiding officers of the National Assembly and those of the state Houses of Assembly, two in each of the 36 states of the federation. Leading the debate on the bill, the sponsor, Odebunmi, said the proposal was to protect the legislative arm of government.
His words: “What is being proposed is immunity from civil and criminal process and therefore the impunity from legal responsibility. It is amazing and scandalous; and shows not only bad intent but a lack of responsibility. There are numerous urgent issues, which should grab the attention of our under-worked and over-dressed parliamentarians such as security, education and economic transformation as well as the 4th industrial revolution. They should serve the people and not aggravate them.
For Logos lawyer, Nwachukwu Odoemela this immunity of a thing, which the 9th Assembly has had a renewed urge and vigour to arrogate to itself by seeking to pass it into law for its principal officers goes beyond their primary role of law making. He noted that it is tainted with suspense.
“We are unable to see any compelling reason such constitutional amendment by legislative intervention is needed at this point. The former President of the Senate faced his charges and we did not see how the prosecution solely hampered the progress of legislative business in Red Chamber and at the National Assembly as a whole. What we experienced were some setbacks brought about by pure political power-play and not precisely by the prosecution at the Code of Conduct Tribunal,” he explained.
Oyeniji believes that the move makes nonsense of the anti – corruption drive of the Federal Government of which the lawmakers play a significant part. According to him, there are many existing legislations to be amended for “this obnoxious idea to see light of day.” He said: “First, it would require an amendment to the Constitution, which recognises immunity for only chief executives of state governments.
“The message seems to be that in Nigeria, powerful and influential actors must not be and are not subject to the rule of law. It’s simply not proper for lawmakers to be the chief advocates of immunity for corruption. It’s a form of political corruption for the parliamentarians to abuse their legislative powers, intended for use in the public interest but instead for personal advantage.
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