It was quite disheartening to hear the news last Tuesday that legislators in the Edo State House of Assembly resorted to fighting as a means of conflict resolution as their colleagues in Nasarawa State did last month. The issue at stake in the Edo legislature was the removal of the speaker and his deputy. According to reports, 16 out of 24 members of the House wanted the change, but curiously such a majority could not peacefully have its way. Instead, hoodlums who were on standby released gunshots as an institutional statement.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) won the 2015 Presidential elections in Nigeria because the party promised to bring about positive change in governance. Before the elections, it was generally agreed that corruption was the nation’s number one enemy which must be aggressively fought.

One of the puzzles yet unraveled in the Nigerian game of politics is why our annual budget has been a source of quarrel between the legislature and the executive since the nation’s return to democracy in 1999. With the 17-year old quarrel operating as a yearly matter without exception, it seems obvious that how to grab money is a prime objective of the squabble. Following the inability of the Federal Executive Council last Wednesday to say when the 2016 budget would be signed into law, hopes of many citizens looking forward to the budget have been dashed. The current phase of the usual cat and rate game does not show that even an early submission of the budget in the future would resolve the matter. It appears obvious that irrespective of when it is submitted, the budget will always be delayed for as long as it takes those hustling for personal gains to achieve their targets. What keeps the hustling game alive is the claim by the legislature that it has the power of appropriation. Citing relevant provisions of the constitution, legislators insist that they can alter, reject or even rewrite the budget. Of course, such a claim of the legislature that every other contribution to the budget depends on its own whims and caprices is incorrect because that would injure the spirit of checks and balances.

For some time now, there has been ample opposition to the policy initiatives of the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El Rufai. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is perhaps the governor’s fiercest critic with respect to a proposed law to regulate religious activities in the state. The bill is aimed at banning the usage of loudspeaker for religious purposes “other than inside a Mosque or Church and the surrounding areas outside the stipulated prayer times.” Governor el-Rufai wants to legally stop the playing or circulating of “all cassettes, CDs, flash drives or any other communication gadgets containing religious recordings from accredited preachers other than inside one’s house, porch, Church, Mosques and other designated places of worship.” The bill also seeks to ban sales or playing of any cassette containing “religious recordings in which abusive language is used against any person or religious organisation or religious leaders (past or present). Any person found guilty of preaching without a valid licence and other offences under the proposed law “shall be liable to two years in prison or a fine of N200, 000.”

The latest incident of fighting in a House of Assembly took place last Monday when Nasarawa State legislators engaged themselves in a free for all fight inside what is often called their ‘Hallowed’ Chambers. According to media reports, the “lawmakers punched each other while glasses were shattered, tables and chairs were also upturned in the violence that engulfed the House for hours. Some legislators sustained injuries during the violence while some had their clothes torn.”