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The 2026 edition of the 10th National Assembly Open Week, at the risk of sounding immodest, has witnessed remarkable success in its organization and execution, a credit of which rests squarely with the leadership of the House of Representatives, led by the trailblazing Speaker, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, Ph.D., GCON.

However, the lessons of the events should remain poignant in the minds of Nigerians, flowing from the nature of issues debated, problems identified, as well as solutions advanced for curbing what many would agree have become perennial in Nigeria’s democratic journey, as it relates to legislative governance practices.

The event that captured the core essence of the legislature was the session that dealt with oversight as enshrined in Section 88 of the 1999 Constitution.

Chaired by a former Speaker of the House in the 8th Assembly, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the session, themed ‘Oversight, CSOs, and Delivery Exchange,’ sought to provide an objective assessment of legislative oversight under the leadership of the 10th House, drawing resource persons from the legislature, the executive arm, civil society, and the bureaucracy of the National Assembly.

While the focal areas were all-encompassing, covering every angle of legislative oversight, the inadequacy of that particular function, which enables the legislature to provide checks and balances, as well as the factors responsible for such inadequacy, featured more prominently in the conversation.

Shining the first light on the subject was the Speaker Abbas himself, who was represented by the Majority Leader of the House, Prof. Julius Ihonbvere.

The Speaker’s argument was simple and straight: given the large number of government agencies-over a thousand of them-funding the Standing Committees for effective oversight becomes a challenge. He said such funding gaps create the weakest link in the governance chain, since lawmakers can’t expect agencies to sponsor their oversight activities and still scrutinize them in a manner that prioritizes public interest.

‘Let’s tell ourselves the bitter truth. How can lawmakers effectively oversight agencies without adequate institutional financial strength? How does a Committee travel outside the legislature and objectively scrutinize the activities of agencies if air tickets, feeding, and accommodation of Members are paid for by the same agencies they wish to oversee?’ the Speaker queried.

Also expanding the debate to other factors was Hon. Cyril Hart, chairman of the Committee on the Evaluation and Implementation of the Legislative Agenda, who pointed out that besides poor funding, lack of cooperation from the executive arm, and inexperience on the part of some legislators also constitute limitations affecting legislative oversight.

Buried in the factors listed by Hon. Hart is one pungent message of legislative perversion: the ‘turn-by-turn’ system of representation in Nigeria, which has necessitated the constantly huge turnover of legislators every four years. As old lawmakers go away with their experience, the new ones have to learn afresh, the result of which is sometimes poor oversight.

Just as it is customary with lawmakers during committee hearings, the session tried to disabuse the minds of the public with the simple mantra: oversight is never an instrument of witch hunts but a tool for accountability and good governance that benefits the electorate. At the session, the point was made plainly: without effective oversight, lawmaking may become an academic exercise, just as public institutions may become inefficient and unaccountable if oversight is not structured to elicit transparency.

For Dogara, he applauded the 10th House for adorning the garment of courage and legislative reforms. He said, ‘It takes great courage to legislate behind closed doors and even greater courage to open your doors to the entire public to come in and examine your actions, take notes, and criticize you where necessary.’

Dogara’s message dwelt on legislative collaboration with civil society, if the funding trap must be beaten to uphold oversight. He argued that the effectiveness of oversight is usually anchored on partnership with civil society organizations, stressing that given what the legislature gets from the national budget, there exist serious funding gaps that such partnership is necessary. He said Civil Society Organizations have the resources that committees’ budgets cannot mobilize, as well as the community network and reach.

Another militating factor against effective oversight, as noted by Speaker Abbas through the Majority Leader, Prof. Ihonbvere, is the issue of political patronage, where party executives are appointed as chairmen or chief executives of government agencies whilst still keeping their positions in the party.

According to the Speaker, it will be difficult for legislators to effectively scrutinize records of agencies headed by leaders of their parties who can influence their return tickets in the next elections.

This point was further reechoed by Hon. Cyril Hart, who noted that ‘one of the daunting challenges lawmakers face is that of political patronage, where a national chairman of the ruling party is made chairman of a board of an agency, and he’s also responsible for compiling names of his party’s candidates for submission to the INEC after the primaries. Knowing that one can be denied a return ticket just for doing his job during oversight makes it impossible for Members of his party to effectively scrutinize his agency.’

For Hon. Saidu Musa Abdullahi, who is the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Finance, the distinctive feature of democracy is the existence of the legislature, asking, ‘How well have we fared?’

The lawmaker noted that one of the main problems is the leadership recruitment process, particularly for legislators. According to him, many lawmakers came to the National Assembly with the mindset of serving the people, but the high probability of being replaced after four years discourages many from pursuing actual legislative ideals. He also asked how well have committees been structured to face oversight challenges?

Oversight remains the only legislative function that brings the legislature to physically interface with the executive arm, said Hon. Chike Okafor, Chairman, Committee on Nutrition and Food Security of the House. Okafor pointed out that Members through standing, special, or ad-hoc committees go out on fact-finding missions to gather data with a view to making informed legislative decisions that benefit the country.

But he identified one serious limitation: the absence of institutional capacity to fund such important activities, which he said waters down the effectiveness of it.

Another factor identified by the session was the absence of financial autonomy for local governments despite the Supreme Court ruling on the matter. Speaker Abbas noted that many Nigerians expect legislators to perform the roles of local government chairmen in terms of providing infrastructure at the grassroots.

He opined that the immense pressure constituents mount on their representatives, and the desires to meet such demands often make legislators susceptible to manipulation by agencies, particularly the ones through which intervention projects are awarded and executed.

Panelists such as Hon. Bamidele Salam, Chairman, Public Accounts Committee of the House, also identified lack of cooperation by heads of MDAs using all manner of excuses to delay the probe. He noted that not only do government agencies seek indefinite postponement of appearances before committees, but they also use the judiciary to stifle the legislature through unnecessary court orders. This, he said, is a bane of legislative oversight.

The panel bemoaned the practice of rushing to obtain court injunctions by erring government agencies the moment there is a parliamentary resolution to probe their activities.

It said agencies usually brandish court orders before National Assembly committees as the basis for their inability to cooperate on issues under scrutiny. This practice is also further enabled by the parliamentary rule prohibiting it from deliberating on matters before the courts, a loophole that has been exploited to the detriment of the people.

The session, therefore, elicited the understanding that oversight as a core legislative mandate under the principle of checks and balances has been below expectations due to the reasons advanced. However, the question remains whether the executive arm, which holds the key to resolving most of the issues raised, will cooperate as a true partner in progress.

In the end, participants and stakeholders agreed that to achieve effective oversight, parliamentary committees must be well-armed with competent hands, as well as become independent, while MDAs must give them maximum cooperation and understanding to succeed.

Three hundred and eleven members of the 10th House of Representatives voted in support of the bill seeking to establish State Police Services in Nigeria during Thursday’s plenary.

Speaker Abbas Tajudeen disclosed this during the Committee of the Whole, convened to consider the report of the Special Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review chaired by Hon. Benjamin Kalu. He announced that the House would use electronic voting based on an earlier resolution passed by the chamber.

Trouble, however, started when the Minority Leader, Hon. Fred Agbedi, and the Minority Spokesman, Hon. Victor Ogene, simultaneously raised a point of order but were not recognised by Speaker Tajudeen. The Speaker had earlier ruled Hon. Benedict Itanabene out of order after he cited a constitutional point of order to explain why the State Police bill should be stepped down.

Despite their insistence, Speaker Tajudeen asked those opposed to the State Police bill to identify themselves and announced that about 15 members opposed the legislative framework.

According to him, a total of 211 members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), 65 members from other political parties, and 35 additional members indicated support for the bill on the digital platform, bringing the total number of votes in favour of the State Police bill to 311.

While noting that the House required 240 votes, representing two-thirds of its 360 members, he explained that the bill contained 26 clauses and a long title.

Shortly after the brief rowdy session, a cross-section of the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives staged a walkout a few minutes after the adoption of the report on the bill seeking to establish State Police.

The walkout followed the refusal of the presiding officer to recognise lawmakers who had shouted ‘Point of Order’ to express their opposition to the report of the Special Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review.

In his remarks, Minority Leader Hon. Fred Agbedi argued that the opposition parties were not opposed to the proposed State Police but to what he described as the Speaker’s high-handedness in ruling him out of order, contrary to the provisions of the Constitution and the Standing Rules of the 10th House of Representatives.

He said:

‘He needed to hear my point of order and then rule based on whether my point of order complied with our rules, with the constitution or not. But he just ruled me out of order because I insisted that I have a point of order and I wanted to raise my point of order. And if, as Minority Leader, as officers of the minority and as members of the minority, we are not allowed to express ourselves based on the rules of the House, then something is wrong.

‘And the requirement is that if we had walked out of the House, then where are our votes? Can you count our votes? Can you count anybody’s votes? Can you decide a constitutional amendment with a voice vote? No, it is not possible. How about those who said nay? Did you record them? No. So we are running a nation without the rule of law.

‘Nigeria should be alert about this. All we asked for, and the only thing we requested, was that due process should be followed. We were all going to cast our votes in support of the creation of State Police and amend the bill where necessary. Laws, proposals, executive bills and private members’ bills are all subject to amendment before members in the chamber, and in this case, we were denied that opportunity.

‘We were not allowed to go through the bill clause by clause. We were not given the opportunity to cast our votes as provided for by both the Constitution in Section 9(2) and Order 5(a), and that is why we are here. Nigerians should be vigilant. We will stand on the side of Nigerians.

‘We stand on the side of the rule of law. We stand on the right side of what will make Nigeria a great nation and what will not impinge on the integrity, progress and development of this nation that we all swore to serve as members of the House of Representatives.’

Speaking earlier, the spokesman of the Minority Caucus, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, alleged that the names mentioned by the Speaker were unknown to them.

He maintained that the Speaker’s action amounted to an affront to the provisions of the Constitution.

However, the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. George Ozodinobi, who remained in the chamber, seconded the motions, including the State Police bill.

At the end of the day’s legislative activities, Speaker Tajudeen announced that the House had adjourned plenary until Tuesday, September 16, 2026.

In a letter addressed to the Speaker, the Minority Caucus expressed support for the principle of State Police but argued that the proposed bill should be recommitted for further legislative scrutiny to address constitutional ambiguities, drafting inconsistencies, jurisdictional uncertainties, governance gaps, and unresolved institutional questions.

‘However, while we fully support the objective of establishing State Police, we caution against the adoption of any legislative instrument in its present form where legal ambiguities, structural inconsistencies, governance gaps and unresolved constitutional questions remain.

‘Enacting a constitutional framework with such deficiencies risks weakening, rather than strengthening, Nigeria’s security architecture and may create avoidable constitutional disputes, institutional conflicts and operational uncertainties for years to come.

‘Our concern is therefore not against State Police; it is against adopting an incomplete constitutional framework. History will not judge the National Assembly merely by whether this Bill is passed. It will judge whether the institution created is effective, accountable, constitutionally sound, respectful of fundamental rights and capable of strengthening rather than fragmenting our national unity.

‘Our concerns: Following a detailed legal and constitutional review, we have identified several critical issues that require further consideration before the legislative process is concluded, including, but not limited to, the following: The constitutional review process should be completed properly.

‘The speed at which the Bill has progressed has led to several drafting inconsistencies, constitutional ambiguities, jurisdictional uncertainties, undefined institutional powers, conflicting provisions and other significant issues that require careful legislative attention.

‘Constitutional amendments differ fundamentally from ordinary legislation.

‘They establish permanent institutional arrangements that may shape governance for generations. Such reforms must therefore be subjected to the highest standard of legislative scrutiny. Nigeria cannot afford to constitutionalise uncertainty.’

While noting that recent legislative experiences, namely the Tax Reform Bills and aspects of the Electoral Reform Act, reflected the consequences of advancing far-reaching national reforms without sufficient consultation, technical review and legislative refinement, the caucus argued that the fallout ‘illustrate[s] how unresolved drafting issues, policy ambiguities and divergent stakeholder interpretations can generate prolonged implementation uncertainty.’

‘These experiences should serve as important lessons, not because the reforms themselves lacked merit, but because constitutional and institutional reforms of national significance require meticulous drafting and rigorous scrutiny before they become law. The objective must therefore not simply be to complete the legislative process within a particular timeline.

‘Rather, it must be to enact a constitutional framework that is clear, coherent, enforceable and capable of enduring for generations. Amending the Constitution is not an exercise to be undertaken lightly. Once constitutional institutions are created, correcting foundational defects becomes significantly more difficult than addressing them during the legislative process.

‘Taking the necessary time to perfect this Bill today will help avoid costly constitutional litigation, institutional conflicts and operational uncertainty tomorrow.

‘State Police must not become an unfunded constitutional mandate. One of the most serious concerns arising from the proposed reform is the financial burden that the establishment and efficient operation of State Police will place on state governments.

‘The establishment of State Police will transfer a significant part of the policing responsibility presently undertaken and financed by the Federal Government to state governments. Fiscal responsibility must follow constitutional responsibility. It would be inequitable and institutionally unsustainable to transfer substantial security obligations to states while retaining a revenue allocation structure designed for a predominantly centralised policing system.

‘Specifically, we propose the reallocation of 15 per cent of the Federation Account revenue presently accruing to the Federal Government to state governments. This adjustment would reflect the substantial policing, public safety, personnel, infrastructure and operational responsibilities being transferred to the states under the proposed constitutional framework.

‘The reallocation should not be treated as a discretionary intervention, temporary grant or politically controlled subvention. It should form part of a transparent, constitutionally and statutorily recognised restructuring of Nigeria’s fiscal federalism.’

While stressing that the debate on State Police is not a partisan issue, the caucus maintained that ‘the success or failure of State Police will affect every Nigerian, regardless of political affiliation, ethnicity, religion, region or social status.

‘Our intervention must not be misconstrued as opposition to this historic reform. It is an exercise of constitutional responsibility and a call for legislative diligence, institutional clarity and fiscal realism. We believe that the adoption stage presents the final opportunity for the House of Representatives to eliminate legal ambiguities, resolve institutional inconsistencies, strengthen accountability safeguards, establish sustainable funding arrangements and produce a constitutional framework capable of withstanding legal scrutiny and operational realities.’

HAULAGE operators have raised the alarm over an extortion point along the Creek road axis of the Apapa Port, stating that after similar oneswere dismantled.

According to them, security operatives now gather at this new point to extort truckers.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, chairman, Dry Cargo section of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Abdullahi Inuwa, explained that truckers are subjected to unreceipted levy at the Mr. Biggs junction along Creek Road in Apapa by state and non-state actors after the dismantling of illegal checkpoints around Lagos ports.

‘The new hotspot is the Mr. Biggs junction along Creek Road when you are approaching the Apapa Port gate.

‘After the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) led other security agencies to dismantle illegal checkpoints around the Apapa Port axis, the unscrupulous elements extorting truckers have now moved to the Mr Biggs junction,’ he said.

‘You will see them hanging around that axis. Once a truck is approaching the port along Creek Road, men in uniform and non state actors emerge from nowhere at the Mr. Biggs junction and subject truckers to all manner of extortion.

‘Haulage operators are losing millions at this junction because it is a major route strategically stationed in-between Apapa and Tin-Can Ports. So, there is no way a truck can come into Apapa or Tin-Can without passing through this axis.’

Recall that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), alongside the Nigeria Police Force and the Lagos State Government, recently launched a joint task force to dismantle illegal checkpoints and extortion points along the Apapa and Tin Can Island port corridors.

The initiative aims to eliminate unauthorized levies that cause severe traffic gridlock and inflate the cost of doing business.

Among the …… illegal checkpoints were on and beneath the Liverpool Bridge, the approach to the Tin-Can Island Container Terminal (TICT), PTML, and Ports and Cargo terminals.

Also, extortion points at the NAGAFF Junction, Etisalat, and Fidelity roundabouts in the Apapa axis were dismantled.