The 10th National Assembly underperforms, failing to deliver on 68 of 92 commitments

FOR a country that embraced a new government three years ago on the promise of “Renewed Hope” despite deep economic, social and governance deficits, the burden of a lethargic National Assembly is a double jeopardy.

A parliament that should serve as the engine room of accountability, lawmaking and oversight has instead become one of the weakest links in Nigeria’s democratic chain.

Therefore, the latest report on the performance of the 10th National Assembly led by Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas is damning, though hardly surprising.

The study, conducted by the AdvoKC Foundation through its Promise Tracker NG platform, examined the legislative commitments made by the 10th National Assembly and paints a picture of a legislature that has largely failed to deliver.

According to the report, federal lawmakers failed to fulfil 68 of the 92 commitments made since the beginning of their tenure in June 2023. The House of Representatives recorded a fulfilment score of 26.8 per cent, while the Senate posted 44.11 per cent.

The parliament continues to underperform because it has fundamentally misunderstood its role, principles and purpose within the governance ecosystem. The 10th assembly has consistently placed its needs above those of the people.

It appears to consider its cosy relationship with the executive more important than its constitutional responsibilities of lawmaking and oversight, which are essential to governance and development.

Promise Tracker monitored 56 commitments made by the House and 34 by the Senate across critical sectors, including healthcare, education, the economy, governance, security and political reforms.

The findings are sobering. The House of Representatives fulfilled only 13 commitments; four were classified as compromised and 39 as broken.

The Senate delivered just nine commitments. Twelve were deemed compromised, while 13 remained unfulfilled.

Even in sectors where lawmakers recorded some success, the achievements were insufficient.

The Senate scored 66.7 per cent in education and 57.1 per cent in economic development and jobs.

Yet in education, the much-publicised NELFUND initiative merely replaced TETFund, the solution earlier championed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities to address the decay in tertiary education.

The National Assembly has failed to make any meaningful impact on the crisis of 18.3 million out-of-school children despite widespread concern and repeated public outcry.

The House recorded 67 per cent in healthcare and 57 per cent in justice and security.

The report further found that electoral reforms and constitutional amendments remained largely unresolved. The House scored 0 per cent in economy and jobs, and a mere 6.0 per cent in governance and political reform.

Many analysts argue that the 10th NASS mistakenly believes that an independent legislature is synonymous with opposition to the executive, while a compliant, rubber-stamp parliament amounts to good governance.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Such thinking violates the principle of checks and balances and represents a profound misunderstanding of democratic ideals.

The federal parliament boasts of introducing over 1,000 bills and passing more than 200 within three years. Of these, 106 were attributed to the Senate and over 100 to the House.

Among them are the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2025, the Local Government Autonomy Bill, the National Education Fund, the Regional Development Bill, the Tax Reform Bill, the Minimum Wage Act, the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Act, the Appropriation Acts for 2024, 2025 and 2026, the Police Trust Fund Act and the Nigeria Revenue Service Bill.

Promise Tracker assessed these commitments across six sectors: governance and political reforms; security and justice; economic growth and jobs; education; transparency and accountability; and healthcare.

Ordinarily, such legislative output would appear impressive. Unfortunately, the impact on citizens’ lives and the quality of implementation tell a very different story.

Indeed, lawmakers scored nearly 100 per cent in one area: approving executive requests with little or no scrutiny.

Executive bills that ordinarily require rigorous legislative processes — including first reading, second reading, committee scrutiny, harmonisation and voting — were hurriedly passed, some within just two hours.

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Supplementary budgets and loan requests were routinely approved within days of executive submission with minimal scrutiny of the expenditures involved.

Former Senate President Bukola Saraki once observed that “a parliament that cannot say no is not a parliament at all.” Such a legislature owes its loyalty to the executive rather than the people.

While President Muhammadu Buhari signed 14 executive orders during his eight years in office, President Bola Tinubu has signed nine since assuming office in 2023.

Without question, the 10th NASS has squandered valuable legislative time on distractions and trivialities.

The most glaring example was the six-month suspension of Natasha Uduaghan-Akpoti, effectively denying the people of Kogi Central representation over allegations relating to sexual harassment and seating arrangements that many considered frivolous and contrary to legislative norms.

Adams Oshiomhole and Ireti Kingibe later alleged that some of the signatures used to ratify her suspension were forged.

Earlier, the Senate suspended Abdul Ningi over comments on constituency project allocations and Ali Ndume for stating that President Tinubu was inaccessible.

Meanwhile, some legislators contribute little or nothing to parliamentary debates despite receiving enormous remuneration.

In a country where more than 12,260 people have been kidnapped since 2023, over 100,000 have died from terrorism and banditry, and about 1.13 million citizens have been displaced, lawmakers have largely responded to insecurity with empty rhetoric and condolence statements.

They have failed to take meaningful measures to hold the military and security institutions accountable.

Likewise, the reality that 133 million Nigerians — about 63 per cent of the population — are multidimensionally poor appears not to trouble the parliament.

The legislature also seemed helpless when the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, disclosed that only N36 million of the N218 billion capital allocation to the ministry had been released in 2025.

At several critical moments when duty called, lawmakers went on recess. In areas requiring courage and leadership, they developed cold feet.

The bill dealing with the electronic transmission of election results, one of the major controversies of the 2023 elections, was handled haphazardly.

Rather than making transmission of polling unit results to iREV mandatory, lawmakers inserted a caveat allowing Form EC8A to be used whenever an internet failure occurs. Such a provision effectively leaves the door open to electoral manipulation.

The economy and government performance have been undermined by the repeated extension of the 2024, 2025 and 2026 budgets. This distorts accountability, weakens transparency, complicates oversight and undermines performance.

The 10th assembly equally shielded its members by removing certificate forgery as a ground for challenging election outcomes at the tribunal level in the proposed 2026 Electoral Act. Such a move is plainly self-serving.

At a time when Nigeria’s public debt has risen to about N159 trillion, debt servicing has climbed to N15.25 trillion, and fiscal deficits exceed N20 trillion, senators reportedly receive about N21 million monthly in allowances, and members of the House receive approximately N19 million.

Lawmakers also continue to collect huge constituency allowances, a practice that offends both democratic principles and financial accountability.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project won the controversial case challenging the NASS’s N110 billion vehicle procurement and allowances.

Yet, midway into Tinubu’s first term, Akpabio led lawmakers in endorsing the President as the consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress for re-election.

Nigeria is yet to develop a comprehensive AI policy, but the National Assembly moved swiftly to strengthen cybersecurity laws that many Nigerians fear could be used to discourage scrutiny of lawmakers and suppress investigative reporting.

Ultimately, Nigerians deserve far more from their parliament.

The legislature exists not to protect the executive, shield its members or pursue political convenience. It exists to represent the people, hold government accountable and defend democracy.

By those standards, the 10th National Assembly has fallen woefully short.