Charles Omole/
Legislations is never a replacement for Education. Globally, the urge to legislate for every possible bad human behaviour has been recognised as unnecessary. The 9th NA should avoid the temptation to see new laws as solutions to old It will make our body of laws cumbersome and can create enforcement confusion when there are several Acts that can be used to punish the same crime. On Hate speech; we have enough laws in place to enforce this. On regulation of Social Media; we have enough laws to enforce this.
And the list goes on. The NA should focus on encouraging Executive enforcement of existing laws rather than creating new laws. Finally, the NA, should learn from the errors of the 7th and 8th NA; who created hundreds of needless Agencies with the laws they passed; which has in turn increased the cost of government. The 9th NA should adopt a policy of shutting down an existing Agency for any new one to be created. This will ensure we don’t add to the already unaffordable cost of running this bloated government estate.
New law is not a replacement for changing hearts and minds through education and creation of a more equal society. As a society; we need to avoid needlessly complicating our legal landscape.
Excessive legislative complexity can hinder economic activity, create extra burdens for individuals, businesses and communities. It has been found to obstruct good government and ultimately undermines the rule of law itself. Keeping things simple makes legal limits clear for all.
To guide its activities, the 9th NA, should be guided by some key principles such as:
1. Need to control the number of new regulations;
2. Assessing the impact of each new regulation vis a vis existing laws;
3. Reviewing the effectiveness of regulations and reducing burden of laws. 4. Improving enforcement of current regulations and laws
5. Promoting the use of alternatives to regulatory enforcements;
6. Reducing the cost of regulation on business.
These will create a proportionality and balance.
Too much law making creates a perception of disproportionate complexity in our legal landscape. Historically, it has always been easier to legislate anew than to repeal old ones. For many in the NA; Legislation is perceived as a sign of action and therefore seen as a powerful communication tool. They can boast of how many laws they passed. But the effectiveness and impact of these laws is never really considered. It is time NA focus on the overall regulatory burden of laws on citizens and businesses. Fine-tuning existing laws may be more effective.
We have laws in our statutes that were created during colonial era. The NA should focus on amending and modernising our legal estate instead of just drafting new bills all the time. Like our elders says; “beheading is not the solution to a headache”. NA need wisdom.
The architecture of our statute book further discourages citizens because changes to existing laws (which in turn generates often complicated sets of ‘legal effects’) are not explicit and new legislation can appear inconsistent with established laws.
Regulation emanating from different sources sometimes overlaps and commencement can be difficult to follow. So the NA need to stop playing to the gallery and do the real work needed of simplifying our laws and reduce regulatory burdens. Good drafting should also be a priority.
I believe the NA should setup a joint committee to compile an Inventory of ALL our laws passed before 1999. These laws are either colonial or mostly military in their sources. The priority should be amendments or repeal of these laws to reflect current democratic realities.
Dr. Charles Omole shared the article on Twitter via @DrCOmole.
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