Legislators in the two neighbouring states of Enugu and Ebonyi in South-East Nigeria took the last position in the ranking of productive state lawmakers in the present political dispensation. Each of the two state houses of assembly comprising 24 members each passed only six bills in two years, according to figures from the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Abuja.

The figures published by the Abuja-based Daily Trust showed that the 30 lawmakers in Benue State passed only seven bills for the same two-year period – same as Cross River’s 25 lawmakers – while Lagos’ 40 lawmakers passed only eight bills.

Nassarawa, whose 24 lawmakers passed 51 bills, was the most productive, followed by Imo, whose 26 lawmakers passed36 bills; just as did Bauchi’s 30 legislators. Kano, with 24 lawmakers, and Oyo, with 32, came next with 35 bills each.

There was no trace of the work done by lawmakers in Abia, Anambra, Borno, Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Katsina states in the RMAFC’s records.

Analysing the data, Daily Trust revealed that despite receiving over N12 billion from June 2011 to June 2013, lawmakers in the country’s 36 states passed only 601 bills into law.

“They appear to be merely waiting to rubber-stamp bills forwarded to them by the executive, as most of the bills passed in the two-year period were annual appropriation bills and supplementary budget bills submitted by the state governors,” the report said, adding:

“Also, there are many states whose assemblies did not pass a single individual member’s bill into law within the period.”

The data showed that in the two years from June 2011 to June 2012, the 202 state lawmakers in the North-West passed 122 bills (Katsina State not included as details are not available) and collected N2.424 billion; while 176 legislators from South-West received N2.112 billion and passed 107 bills into law (with the exception of those from Ekiti, whose records could not be obtained).

The 158 lawmakers from the South-South, with the exception of Edo where records have not been obtained, had passed 69 bills into law and received N1.896 billion as salaries and allowances.

The North-East has 156 state assembly members, who passed 130 bills (with the exception of Borno) after collecting N1.872 billion as emoluments.

The North-Central zone, with 158 legislators had collected N1.896 billion and passed into law 125 bills; while the 128 lawmakers from South-East had passed 48 bills (with the exception of those from Anambra and Abia states whose records could not be obtained) and received N1.536 billion as emoluments.

•Photo shows Imo Speaker,, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu, who presides over a productive House.

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