8th NASS passed highest number of pro-masses Bills – Ozekhome SAN

Constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome on Thursday has
described the outgoing eighth National Assembly as the best in the
Nigerian legislative history in terms of productivity and asserting
the independence of the legislature.

He also said the eighth NASS threw up brave and courageous
legislators who spoke truth to power at the risk of their
lives.

In a statement, Ozekhome said though the NASS is expected to
cooperate with the executive, it is not to do so at the expense of
its independence.

He stressed that the NASS must always defend the Nigerian people
at all times “because governments, like soldiers, come and go,
while the barracks (the people, the real owners of power) remain.
They constitute the dog that wags the tail (government)”.

According to him, from the outset, the Assembly has “held
sacrosanct, the hallowed doctrine of Separation of Powers, as ably
propounded by great philosophers of yore and famously dilated upon
in 1748 by the great French philosopher, Baron de Montesque”.

Ozekhome said, “In the entire legislative history of Nigeria,
the 8th NASS has Passed the greatest no of pro-masses motions,
resolutions and bills (into Acts of parliament) than any
Legislature before it.“

“It has also incubated and thrown up the most daring, courageous
and brave Legislators that spoke truth to power and authority, at
the perilous risk to their lives, families and properties. Future
NASS should and must take a cue from the 8th NASS, that it is an
independent arm of government specifically created by section 4 of
the 1999 Constitution, to make laws for the peace, order and good
governance of Nigeria.“

According to the legal luminary, the legislative arm “is not a
rubber stamp to executive desires and nuances”.

He said any NASS worthy of its name as the present one, “must
rise up and use its oversight powers under sections 88 and 89 of
the 1999 Constitution to check the excesses of the other Judicial
and Executive arms of government, especially of the usually
intolerant, overbearing, dictatorial, arm-twisting and imperious
Executive arm that controls the coercive apparachick of state power
and forces”.

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