NASS AT 3: Between legislative volume and the verdict of Nigerians

By Gift Chapi-Odekina, Abuja

As the 10th National Assembly marked three years in office last week, the mood inside the National Assembly complex swung between self-congratulation and sober self-assessment a tension that defined the just-concluded 2026 Open Week, themed ‘Three Years of the 10th National Assembly: Advancing Transparency, Inclusion and Reform.’

The Numbers Game

By its own account, the Assembly has been busy. Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Hon. Francis Waive, told reporters the House alone had introduced 2,747 bills since June 2023 comprising 57 executive bills, 95 Senate concurrence bills and 2,595 private member bills and passed 363 of them across three legislative sessions: 89 in the first, 148 in the second, and 126 in the just-concluded third.

House Spokesman Akin Rotimi pointed to tangible outcomes, citing the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which he said has benefited over 1.6 million Nigerians with more than N303 billion disbursed in student loans. He also flagged a structural explanation for the wide gap between bills introduced and bills passed: many proposals are consolidated into single pieces of legislation before final passage. More than 300 constitutional amendment proposals remain at various stages, he disclosed, with leadership already scoping priorities for a fourth session that will reportedly see about 40 constitutional amendment bills including the long-pending Special Seats for Women bill put to a vote.

Waive listed the passage of the 2026 Appropriation Bill, the Electoral Act 2026, tax reform measures, the Minimum Wage Act, and constitutional amendments paving the way for state police among the Assembly’s marquee achievements.

A Different Kind of Scorecard

But if the Assembly’s own figures told a story of productivity, the voices assembled for Open Week pressed a different, more searching question: productivity toward what end?

The Chief of Staff to the President and former Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila urged that an Open Week “must be more than the ceremonial opening of the gates of Parliament”, it should be “an invitation to scrutiny, dialogue and partnership.”

He cautioned lawmakers against measuring success merely by bill counts, urging them instead toward tangible impacts: effective laws, improved budget implementation, and stronger public confidence in government.

That caution was echoed, more pointedly, by Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) Executive Director Clement Nwankwo, who told the gathering that “the Legislature is at its strongest not when it agrees with the Executive, but when it faithfully discharges its constitutional duty to scrutinise Executive action, protect public resources and ensure that government remains accountable to the people.”

His verdict was blunt: “The jury is out there on how you have performed in this regard.” Nwankwo pressed for completion of the constitutional amendment process, passage of the Special Seats Bill for Women, and stronger, evidence-based oversight before the Assembly’s tenure ends.

Former Archbishop of Abuja John Onaiyekan reminded lawmakers that their legitimacy flows from the ballot box, urging them to place the interests of Nigerians above all else.

Former Speaker Aminu Masari praised the Open Week as proof the House was living up to its “People’s House” billing, while former Senator Shehu Sani challenged members to legislate directly for the needs of ordinary citizens.

Dogara’s Warning on Implementation Gap

The most pointed critique came from former Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who told the Open Week that despite 25 years of uninterrupted democracy, many Nigerians were yet to feel the impact of decisions taken by the legislature.

He questioned the persistent gap between what the Assembly approves and what citizens actually receive, arguing that oversight exists precisely to expose corruption, inefficiency and poor governance and warning that it “loses its relevance when it becomes a mere ceremonial exercise.”

Dogara called for civil society to be treated as equal partners rather than outsiders, describing such groups as the “eyes and ears” of the legislature, and recalled pushing for civil society monitors at budget defence sessions over resistance from some lawmakers.

He framed the disconnect between budget approval and project implementation as a failure of accountability, not merely underdevelopment and urged the Assembly to track budget implementation with the same energy it devotes to passing appropriation bills.

State Police: The Unfinished Centrepiece

No issue captured the Assembly’s three-year arc ambitious legislating, unresolved detail more than state police.

Speaker Abbas Tajudeen used the Open Week’s National Security Roundtable to mount what he called a direct answer to public fears that governors could turn state police into a “private army.”

He detailed constitutional safeguards in the executive bill: Commissioners of Police appointed on National Police Council recommendation and confirmed by State Houses of Assembly, removable only by two-thirds legislative vote for proven misconduct, and a Federal Police intervention power usable only under tightly defined, time-limited, court-reviewable conditions.

Abbas confirmed that no state police service could begin operating before its State House of Assembly passes enabling legislation and the state meets national standards yet to be set by the National Assembly and proposed a phased rollout, starting with a National Minimum Standards Act.

“Standards first, structures after,” he said. Waive, in the earlier House briefing, had clarified the same point: the constitutional amendment only establishes the legal basis for state police, while a separate Police Act amendment will determine the operational architecture.

The Ledger, As It Stands

Three years in, the 10th Assembly’s own accounting shows a legislature working at volume: thousands of bills, hundreds passed, headline reforms in elections, tax, wages and policing structure now before the country. But the chorus from PLAC, Dogara, Gbajabiamila and Onaiyekan converged on a shared caveat that volume is not the same as verdict, and that the Assembly’s legacy in its final session will be judged less by how many bills it introduced than by whether Nigerians can see the difference in their daily lives, and whether unfinished business the Special Seats Bill for Women, the state police implementation framework, sustained oversight of the executive gets carried to completion before the 10th Assembly’s tenure ends.

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