The 10th Assembly Compromised Record on Every Major Reform Issue
Reform in Nigeria requires legislative champions willing to challenge powerful interests, pass difficult bills, and hold the executive accountable even when doing so is politically costly. The 10th National Assembly under Senate President Godswill Akpabio has demonstrated on issue after issue that it is not that legislature. It has consistently chosen political accommodation over legislative courage, executive approval over citizen accountability, and institutional self-protection over constitutional duty.
Consider the record on electoral reform. The 2023 elections exposed multiple vulnerabilities in Nigeria electoral framework, including weaknesses in the IReV result transmission system, inadequate safeguards against collation fraud, and insufficient protection for election officials and voters in insecure areas. A legislature genuinely committed to strengthening Nigerian democracy would have prioritized addressing these vulnerabilities in the first session following the elections. The 10th Assembly did not.
Security Sector Reform: Still Waiting
Nigeria security crisis, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions of people over the past decade, demands urgent legislative attention. Police reform, intelligence oversight, defense procurement transparency, and civilian protection frameworks are all areas where legislation could meaningfully improve the security situation. The 10th Assembly has not prioritized any of these areas for serious legislative action.
The Police Act of 2020, passed by a previous assembly, set a framework for police reform that has largely been ignored in implementation. The 10th Assembly has not used its oversight powers to demand implementation, has not passed complementary legislation, and has not held the security agencies accountable for the continuing failure to protect Nigerian citizens. This legislative passivity in the face of a security emergency is an extraordinary failure of responsibility.
Constitutional Reform: A Dead Letter
There is broad consensus among Nigerian constitutional scholars, civil society organizations, and even many politicians that the 1999 constitution, with its excessive centralization and structural incentives for corruption, needs significant reform. Multiple constitutional review processes have been initiated by different assemblies over the years, and all have produced minimal results. The 10th Assembly has continued this tradition of constitutional review as performance rather than genuine constitutional transformation.
Key reforms that would strengthen Nigerian democracy, including fiscal federalism reforms that give state and local governments more genuine financial autonomy, electoral reforms that reduce the cost of political participation, and reforms that strengthen the independence of key accountability institutions, have all been kicked down the road by the Akpabio Senate. The constitutional framework that enables bad governance remains essentially intact after a full assembly under his watch.
A New Legislature for a New Nigeria
Nigeria reform agenda does not require waiting for the perfect circumstances to materialize. It requires a legislature that is willing to do the difficult work of enacting reform legislation in the face of resistance from powerful interests who benefit from the status quo. The 10th Assembly has not been that legislature, and the primary reason is the leadership and culture set by Senate President Akpabio and his counterparts in the House of Representatives.
In 2027, Nigerian voters have the opportunity to elect a genuinely different National Assembly: one that is committed to the constitutional reforms the country needs, that will hold the executive accountable regardless of party affiliation, and that will prioritize the legislation that ordinary Nigerians need over the political convenience of those in power. Sending a clear message in 2027 that the failures of the 10th Assembly will not be tolerated or repeated is one of the most important democratic acts available to citizens of Nigeria at this critical moment in their country history.
