At Premium Times Books, we are proud of Senator Effiong Bob’s monumental endeavour at social and political documentation in The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria. It is a significant reflection on and interpretation of the efforts of a vital class of political actors and personalities, who have been shaped by the experience of service in a key national institution, whose processes a number of them still continue to shape, in subtle and overt ways. This book is essential reading for democrats and ethusiasts of democracy, the politically inclined, scholars of the legislature, students of history, and all who are interested in Nigeria, etc.
Premium Times Books is pleased to have published The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria, a compelling work by Senator Effiong Bob, which is not only a political memoir, but equally an historical document, authoritative handbook and “manual” on our political process in the country.
As a compendium and mélange of major voices of those who make up Nigeria’s power elite, recounting their different travails while aspiring to and shepharding power, the book is essentially an insider’s story – or series of stories – articulating the various contours of our democratic experience, from the pre-election to the election and post-election phases. It is an aggregation of stories, distilled into the story of Nigeria, and told by those at the forefront of decision-making in the public sphere.
Stories matter to us at Premium Times Books – and significant ones like those told by Senator Bob in this new book – as they help in keeping track of all that characterise the evolution of our country, and the world. Alongside the remarkable efforts of individuals, groups and institutions that play key roles in this – for good and for bad. Or both.
Stories are barometers of human and social development, through which the health or ill-health of societies can be gauged. This is why we are invested in helping to midwife and tend to the proper articulation of some of these stories that are of a consequential nature, through our publishing programme. We are glad that this has taken another tangible expression in the work that has brought us all together this morning.
Whilst the overall canvass that The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria unfolds is about how our democracy is contrived and constituted – warts and all – and the sociology of the key personalities who give governance in the country its form and character, it largely elucidates upon the trajectories of those seeking elective offices, the realities they meet in the field while pursuing voter consent, and their subsequent triumphs and trials in the chambers of lawmaking – whether local or national.
Moreso, this book details the complex, if not often stifling social expectations placed upon Nigerian representatives by their constituencies, and the challenges within the political space as they work for the good of the public, which – many times – sees them negotiating all sorts of political landmines. These could come in the forms of the yoke of godfathers, the mindless demands of meddlesome governors or executive overreach – all consituting core aspects of the burden that this book unveils. And this is a burden that largely distorts, rather than enhances our democracy.
No doubt, the various narratives pulled together as a compelling tour de force, as already indicated, point to ways of understanding, then transcending these overlapping malaise.
At the heart of it all, mediating upon and giving direction to this grand narrative of political experiences and nationhood is Senator Effiong Bob, who has gathered together the various voices and perspectives of his fellow journeymen and women to illustrate the multiple levels of burden that afflict the Nigerian political space, governance and, ultimately, democracy. He is certainly a most reliable witness to power and history, or the history of power that this book chronicles across multiple layers, having participated in different levels of government and observed all the rituals of power and access.
Very importantly, a number of the fundamental premises on which the book hinges – and sets out to inform – comprise the need to clearly state and define the role of the legislator, in what has become a civic space that erroneously considers the political office as essentially a cargo cult. As such, all those seeking to serve are basically viewed as going in to grab their own shares of the national cake, with money making being the be all and end all of public service.
From being a councillor to council chairman, then Deputy Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, and finally a two-term Senator, Mr Effiong Bob has covered a good deal of ground across the nation’s political spectrum, and hence acquired an “expert-insider” perspective on Nigerian political and governance processes. He was well prepared for the role through formal education at the University of Lagos, where he studied Law, before being called to the Bar in 1984, and then decades of legal practice.
Senator Bob has equally had great political exposure, having served as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Akwa Ibom State, and on crucial committees following his election into the Nigerian Senate in 2003. In the latter post, he was Chair of the Finance, Senate Services, and Culture and Tourism committees. He also functioned as the Vice Chair of the Power and Steel Committee, after which he was on the Local and Foreign Debts Committee, in addition to serving twice in the ECOWAS Parliament.
As such, Effiong Bob is the quintessential insider in the national legislature and spaces of power, who has seen it all, borne the burden of the Nigerian legislator, and has networked extensively among his colleagues, to be able to corral them into sharing the experiences of their mutual burden in the service of the nation. This book points to the merits of cumulative legislative experience, as it argues that lawmaking should not be left to “novices” but should draw strength from the longevity of members, who are able to add value to committee work through accumulated and tested capacity.
Very importantly, a number of the fundamental premises on which the book hinges – and sets out to inform – comprise the need to clearly state and define the role of the legislator, in what has become a civic space that erroneously considers the political office as essentially a cargo cult. As such, all those seeking to serve are basically viewed as going in to grab their own shares of the national cake, with money making being the be all and end all of public service.
Hence, most – if not all – relationships with legislators and politicians are transactional, as they are put under tremendous pressure – from the pre-election to post-election stages – to provide materially for constituents, who only see them as open wallets that should be extracted from, and not mediums of service or the public good. Otherwise, they are hardly of any use to these consituents.
The painful logic here is: Give us our own share of the boon, as you are going into or are already in office grabbing your own share! That, to the author, is a most unbearable burden that the Nigerian legislator and politican continuously contend with, and which they have to keep enlightening the public about, as being antithetical to the notion of public service and the public good.
Other premises on which this interesting book hinge include its very critical illuminations on the national stability and reform purposes of the legislature, and especially the notion of the separation of power. This emphasises the legislature as an independent branch of government, with the constitutional mandate to carry out oversight functions, while checking executive excess and overreach. The book goes on to offer accounts of how this principle is affirmed in key national episodes, such as the overriding of the presidential veto on the NDDC Act and the rejection of the “Third Term project” of the Obasanjo administration, etc.
While Professor Philip Afaha notes in the Foreword to The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria that very few politicians of Senator Bob’s status would dedicate time to this level of research and writing, this book is a desirable model of that dedication for others to emulate. It is an authoritative chronicle that would be indispensable to legislators, students, and citizens devoted to the growth of Nigerian democracy.
At Premium Times Books, we are proud of Senator Effiong Bob’s monumental endeavour at social and political documentation in The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria. It is a significant reflection on and interpretation of the efforts of a vital class of political actors and personalities, who have been shaped by the experience of service in a key national institution, whose processes a number of them still continue to shape, in subtle and overt ways. This book is essential reading for democrats and ethusiasts of democracy, the politically inclined, scholars of the legislature, students of history, and all who are interested in Nigeria, etc.
Premium Times Books has three principal missions, which is to expand the reading public in Nigeria, to make essential books easily available to the reading public, and to bring books about Nigeria published in Europe, America and elsewhere, to the national audience.
In this regard, we have a growing catalogue of highly remarkable books and titles, from Naija No Dey Carry Last, by the late distinguished Professor Pius Adesanmi, to the Boko Haram trilogy anchored by Professor Raufu Mustapha – comprising Overcoming Boko Haram, Sects and Social Disorder, in addition to Creed and Grievance. Also, we published the greatly insightful Quranic Schools in Northern Nigeria by Hannah Hoechner; the piquant voyages around nationhood in Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices and We are All Biafrans by Chido Onumah; and ground-cutting studies such as Dr Omoniyi Ibietan’s Cyber Politics, and The Sokoto Caliphate by Murray Last.
There is also my own very well received book, The Letterman: Inside the Secret Letters of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Azu Ishiekwene’s literary gem on the media, Writing for Media and Monetising It, RSB Fadile’s NINE LIVES, which lays out a unique perspective on coup plot of 1995, and Professor Jibrin Ibrahim’s magnum opus onDeepening Democracy in Nigeria. There is equally Dr Umar Yakubu’s exposé on social accountability in Nigeria Imagined, and Austin Emaduku’s pace setting Colours of My Mind, among a growing list of noteworthy titles that are about to be released.
At Premium Times Books, we are on a mission to keep publishing books that continually deepen knowledge on important aspects of our lives, and which continue to serve as crucial resources for engaging with our histories and experiences.
While Professor Philip Afaha notes in the Foreword to The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria that very few politicians of Senator Bob’s status would dedicate time to this level of research and writing, this book is a desirable model of that dedication for others to emulate. It is an authoritative chronicle that would be indispensable to legislators, students, and citizens devoted to the growth of Nigerian democracy.
Yet, as much as Effiong Bob has done the vital job of unveiling the burden of legislators in the country, the next critical stage is the work of how to relieve this burden. However, without doubt, this would be impossible without thoroughly understanding the pathway already laid out towards accomplishing this in this highly remarkable undertaking of Senator Effiong Bob.
Musikilu Mojeed is the Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times newspapers and Chief Operating Officer of the Premium Times Group.
This is the text of the Publisher’s Statement at the presentation of Senator Effiong Bob’s The Burden of the Legislator in Nigeria at the NAF Conference Centre, Ahmadu Bello Way, Abuja on Saturday 7th February.
