Cheers and chair-shuffling as Reps’ members embark on another holiday

If the National Assembly were a school, the House of Representatives could easily be the class that lives for the bell. Last week, Nigeria’s representatives could not hide their excitement to embark on another holiday.

On Wednesday, May 29, the House officially adjourned plenary and entered recess mode, marking the third such break in two months alone. The stated reason? To commemorate both Democracy Day on June 12 and the upcoming Sallah celebrations to return on June 17. That’s 19 more days of legislative quiet.

The enthusiasm with which this latest break was announced was telling. Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the House, appeared gleeful as he delivered the news to his colleagues on the floor.

“I have more announcements”, he said after reading the latest notice of defection to the Ruling All Progressives Congress. “Don’t worry, this will excite you,” Abbas said as he announced the break, and a mild cheer followed.

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This isn’t an isolated incident. The House had previously adjourned plenary on March 27, to allow members to observe both the Easter and Sallah holidays. That break, originally set to end on April 29, was later extended to May 6. And now, not even a month later, it’s time for another pause.

To be fair, everyone needs a break. The job of a legislator, at least on paper, is demanding. Lawmaking, oversight, and representation come with significant pressure. But critics argue that Nigeria’s lawmakers are fast developing a reputation for enjoying the perks of office far more than the responsibilities it entails. With one of the highest-paid legislatures in the world, the optics of serial adjournments and recesses do little to improve public perception.

“Democracy Day is a single day. Sallah is at best two days. How that translates to a three-week break is baffling”, a public spectator at the gallery of the Green Chamber said.

This isn’t the first time the House has been criticised for taking prolonged or poorly justified breaks. In a country where economic hardship continues to bite and trust in public institutions is already thin, lawmakers taking extensive breaks, often without clear legislative milestones to show for their time in session, can come off as tone-deaf. For some Nigerians, it feels like a widening gap between the governed and those elected to serve them.

Nigeria’s National Assembly is perhaps one of the costliest to maintain globally, with lawmakers receiving generous salaries and allowances, reportedly in the hundreds of millions of naira annually. And yet, it often seems their presence in the chambers is more sporadic than steady.

A recurrent defence is that most of the real work takes place at the committee level. Legislative aides are quick to argue that oversight visits, bill drafting, and stakeholder engagements continue even while plenary is on hold. But to many Nigerians, what’s visible is what’s real—and what’s visible is an Assembly that loves adjournments nearly as much as it loves privileges.

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To be fair again, the House has not been entirely idle. Since the start of the 10th Assembly in June 2023, lawmakers have debated several high-impact bills, but it appears that for every burst of activity, there seems to be an equally long lull, which is becoming regular.

The House’s approach to recess also reflects broader questions about the priorities of Nigeria’s political elite. Do they see governance as a service or a privilege? Are holidays being used for constituency engagement and policy consultation, or merely as time off?

For an institution that prides itself as the heartbeat of democracy, the House risks being seen as a retreat centre for the well-connected if it doesn’t demonstrate urgency and consistency in its core duties.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian public is left to the daily grind of high food prices, unstable power supply, and persistent insecurity. Labour unions are threatening nationwide strikes over the government’s failure to reach an agreement over salaries and wages.