The legislator is always a subject of ridicule and attack. People sometimes don’t think legislators do anything at all – Senate President, Akpabio

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has asserted that Nigerians place unfair demands on lawmakers. Akpabio expressed that among the three branches of government, legislators face the most misconceptions and criticism from the Nigerian public.

These remarks were made during the 100th birthday colloquium for Second Republic lawmaker Senator Kunle Oyero, organized by the Abeokuta Grammar School Old Boys Association in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The senator representing Ogun Central, Shuaib Salisu, delivered Akpabio’s statement at the event. He said;

“The one arm of government that people don’t really understand and is always a subject of ridicule and attack is the legislature. In fact, people sometimes don’t think legislators do anything at all. The problem is that the metric of measuring the performance of the legislators by the electorate is different from what is contained in the syllabus. The syllabus will say as a legislator your role is to make laws, perform oversight functions and make appropriations; those are the three things a legislator must perform. But any senator that confines himself to that will not get a return ticket even in his party because the metric of measuring the performance of legislators is the number of transformers, and other material things they give to the people they are representing.”