Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
Senator Suraju Ajibola Basiru, spokesman for the Senate and senator for Osun State’s Osun Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, stated that since the establishment of the ninth National Assembly, it has continued to be proactive in enacting significant and lasting changes.
According to the conclusion of press week at the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Osogbo, this accomplishment was made possible by the Senate’s members using their legislative authority in accordance with the nation’s Constitution.
At the occasion, the senator gave a lecture titled “The Place of Legislature in a Constitutional Democracy.”
“I dare claim that the record number of quality laws that have been passed thus far (emphasis provided) is indicative of the nationalistic determination to ensure that the country is steady on the path of peace, social justice, and sustainable economic prosperity,” he stated. I take great pleasure in recalling this esteemed group that the Petroleum Industry Act, which has resisted over twenty years of legislative intervention, was passed and signed into law by the President to the credit of the 9th National Assembly.
The elected government and the people are all subject to the authority of a supreme law, which is the Constitution, under a constitutional democracy, he continued.
Therefore, a constitutional democracy is one in which the people elect their leaders while a Constitution guarantees and defends each person’s rights and liberties.
Therefore, it asserts that arbitrary rule is the opposite of a constitutional democracy.
Indicators of constitutional democracy include popular sovereignty, majority and minority rights, freedom of the press, limited government, institutional and procedural checks on authority, and others.
In a constitutional democracy, Senator Basiru stated, “The division of powers, preservation, and protection of fundamental rights embodied in a Constitution shields the person from the overpowering state authority and influence.
“The legislature is a separate branch of government that consists of elected officials with the authority to enact, amend, and abolish laws for a state or a nation.
The legislature is typically referred to as the first beneficiary of the power sharing arrangement in a country’s constitution and is widely regarded as a crucial institution of democracy because it is a fractional composition and representation of the people seated in a designated place to discuss matters of State.
“The legislature regulates all of a country’s social, political, and economic activities through legislation. The legislature is seen as the watchdog over other branches of government as a result.
“The legislature is a separate institution tasked with representing the needs and ambitions of the populace through the passage of laws and the exercise of its oversight powers over the executive branch of government.
The power of the Nigerian Press is intrinsically derived from the sovereignty of the Nigerian people, and that in itself is instructive. Based on the aforementioned, it performs its surveillance and vigilance duties over the socio-political environment. Despite the fact that it is not expressly named as a direct beneficiary of the power-sharing structure outlined in the Constitution, the power of the Nigerian Press is nonetheless instructive.
Therefore, he declared: “There is no disputing that the citizens’ access to free speech and other democratic rights serves as a guarantee of the political legitimacy of any administration.”
