Former Speaker of the 9th Assembly and Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has said Nigeria’s 26 years of democracy has been sustained by generations of lawmakers who built the country’s legislative tradition from scratch
often without clear guidance and against unique political realities.
Speaking on Tuesday at the opening of the 2025 National Assembly Open Week in Abuja, Gbajabiamila reflected on the journey of the House of Representatives since 1999, describing it as a story of resilience, hard lessons, and progress despite limited institutional memory.
“Before 1999, our last experiment with legislative governance ended in 1993 and before that, in 1983. So, there wasn’t much institutional memory to build on. The conventions of parliamentary practice were new to many of us,”he said.
The Chief of Staff underscored that while the National Assembly has matured into a crucial arm of government, the breakdown of local governance has forced lawmakers into roles that distract from their constitutional duties.
“In advanced democracies, quality-of-life issues like waste management, education, healthcare, and local security are handled by local governments. When local councils are strong and independent, lawmakers can focus on making laws, shaping policy, and holding the executive to account as God and the Constitution intended,”Gbajabiamila stressed.
He praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration for prioritizing reforms to restore local government autonomy a move he said is vital to saving the legislature from being overwhelmed by demands it was never designed to handle.
“If we cannot fix the place of local governments in our political system, we must face the reality and amend our Constitution to formalise the extra duties legislators now shoulder. Otherwise, this disconnect between expectations and resources will continue to weaken our democracy,”he warned.
Gbajabiamila concluded with a note of caution: “A democracy without a strong legislature and a robust legislative tradition is a promise deferred.”
The week-long Open Week at the National Assembly is designed to deepen citizens’ trust and participation in legislative processes, shining a light on how the ‘People’s House’ works behind the scenes to shape national development.
