Parliamentarians Hold Key to Success of Democracy in Africa- Don

An academic, Prof. Muyiwa Falaiye, has urged parliamentarians across Africa to perform their constitutional roles judiciously, saying they hold the keys to success of democracy.

Falaiye, Director, Institute of African and Diaspora Studies (IADS), University of Lagos, made the plea on Wednesday at the end of a two-day hybrid international conference in Lagos.

Theme of the conference was: “Legislature and Democratic Consolidation in Africa in the 21^st Century.”

The conference, hosted by IADS, in collaboration with Glotan Research Services, started on Wednesday with some participants physically present, while others participated online.

Falaiye, represented by Dr Ayo Yusuf, IADS’s Head of Research, said: “Entrenching full blown democratisation in Africa will be mainly determined by the manner of politics played by the national legislators.

“The resolve of legislators globally, especially those at the national or federal levels of governance, is the key to how democracy thrives in any society.

“To understand why Nigeria’s democracy or that of other African countries is failing is to explore the performances of legislators, particularly as they carry out oversight of the national executive arms.”

The IADS director said that judicious execution of the legislative oversight functions in Nigeria, and all over Africa, underscored the advancement or derailment of democracy in Africa.

Also, Dr Phemelo Marumo, North West University, South Africa, in a keynote lecture, urged the legislators to seek African solutions to Africa’s problems in their act of legislations.

Marumo, who spoke on: “RE-imaging the New Normal During COVID-19 from an African Philosophical School of Thought”, said legislative practices in Africa were still built on Western ideals and patterns.

“It is high time parliamentarians across Africa incorporate the communitarian ideals we Africans are known for in their performances and eventual laws that they enact.

“The COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies how our national legislators still copy the ways of the colonial masters and tailor their legislations to combat Coronavirus from Western promoted instructions by the UN and WHO.

“I strongly believe that COVID-19 cannot overwhelm us, if African national parliamentarians embrace ideals of communalism over individualism, togetherness over selfishness, and African humanness over self-interest in their duties,” Marumo said.

He said that increased incorporation of indigenous African ideals in Africa’s legislative practices would help to overcome most, if not all, the continent’s socioeconomic, political and healthiness challenges.

Meanwhile, Prof. Victor Ojakorotu, Director of Glotan Research Services, on the sidelines, continued that African scholars were not well enough interrogating the continent’s legislators in their intellectual engagements to offer advice.

“The need to improve on scholarships, researches and intellectual meets to diagnose the performances of African parliamentarians to help them advance democracy in the continent cannot be underrated.

“The allegation that Africa’s de-democratisation or under-democratisation or poor democratic credentials is more and more the fault of legislators seems to be true.

“If those supposedly meant to check maladministration and excessiveness of the other arms is collaborating or overlooking bad governance, then, they are evidently most guilty of desecrating democracy,” Ojakorotu said.

He said that the legislative arm of government was the most democratised than other arms, and therefore, shoulders the success of democracy or not in any nation-state.

Similarly, Dr Kayode Eesuola, a Senior Researcher at IADS, told NAN that Nigeria’s National Assembly, like other national parliamentarians in Africa, would be most culpable than the other arms of government, if democracy fails.

“The responsibility to protect, secure and advance democracy fall mostly upon the legislature than the executive and judiciary arms.

“If democracy derails in any country, actually blame the legislative arm, because the power to determine success of governance, democracy and nation-building is mainly those of legislators,’’ he said.

Eesuola said that addressing Nigeria’s challenges of democratisation needed to get more attention and serious engagement by the National Assembly as those legislators directly supervise the Federal Government policies.