Eight months after, the House trudges on

AGAINST all expectations, the House of Representatives stunned Nigerians when it opted to pick Yakubu Dogara, representing Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Federal Constituency of Bauchi State on June 9, 2015 as the seventh Speaker.

Block votes from the 140 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members coupled with split votes from among the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) 213 members was all that sealed the fate of Femi Gbajabiamila, who was controversially the preferred candidate of the ruling APC.

The outcome of the poll sent shock waves into the camp of Gbajabiamila who must have pondered over what must have suddenly swung support to Dogara who until the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate President, had an unrealistic chance of winning the election.

In the spirit of sportsmanship, Gbajabiamila walked up to embrace Dogara in an apparent show of support and solidarity notwithstanding their differences in the build up to the election on the floor of the House.

But hardly had the eight House of Representatives settled down for business that the House under him was on June 25 engulfed in a crisis over leadership positions. Lawmakers engaged one another in a brawl, forcing the House to adjourn for over one month, thus affecting legislative activities in the chamber for a long time.

Eight months after, has the House under Dogara provided the leadership? Has the parliament meaningfully changed the conversation concerning the green chamber?

The politics outside the chamber, more often than not have tended to blur its activities. For instance, some members of the ruling APC in the House have dragged the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, the Clerk of the House, Sani Omolori before an Abuja High Court seeking to invalidate portions of its Rule Book.

In October 2015 the parliament adopted the report of its ad-hoc committee to review the House Standing Orders, in which the Speaker was vested with the powers to suspend any member that approaches the mace, the symbol of authority of the parliament with whatever intention.

The new Standing Order also vests in the Speaker, the authority to suspend for 30 plenary days, any member who fails to obey the presiding officer’s directive for such a lawmaker to assume his seat during plenary.

In the suit filed by their lawyer, Ahmed Bello Mahmud, last December, the 11 lawmakers, led by Aliyu Sani Madaki (APC, Kano) are seeking among others, the court to nullify the new Standing Orders and declare it unconstitutional as according to them, it contravened the constitution.

The other lawmakers are Mohammed Musa Soba (APC, Kaduna); Yusuf Bala Ikara (APC, Kaduna); Abubakar Lado Suleja (APC, Niger) and Lawal Yahaya Gumau (APC, Bauchi); Rotimi Agunsoye (APC, Lagos); Aminu Ibrahim Malle (APC, Taraba); Sunday Adepoju (APC, Oyo); Ahmed Babba Kaita (APC, Katsina); Philip Shuaibu (APC, Edo); Abubakar Chika Adamu (APC, Niger).

Eight months may be too short a period to fairly judge how far the House has fared under Dogara, but it is long a enough period to clarify the direction of the parliament.

Political monitors have noted that the House of Representatives has done much in eight months since inauguration on June 9, when the presiding officers were elected in both chambers. Specifically, the House of Representatives stunned National Assembly monitors when the chamber presented a total of 130 bills at a single session presided over by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.

The House has also passed motions on the ‘Need for the Publication of the Handover Notes of the Administration of Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in the Official Gazette of the Federation;’ ‘Urgent Need for a Forensic Investigation of the Contract known as Refined Product Exchange Agreement or Swap Contract between the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Oil Trading Companies;’ to mention but a few.

The House has promised to have all the 130 bills passed before the end of the first quarter of 2016. On resumption from the Christmas and New Year break, the House commenced earnest consideration of the bills listing 20 bills at every plenary. Already, some of the bills have passed through second reading while some have passed third reading. One of such important bills passed is the life insurance for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and the EFCC amendment bill seeking the reconstitution of the anti graft agency.

In August 2015, the House delegated its Speaker who was among the 140 Speakers of parliaments from across the world who converged on New York where he held bilateral talks with speakers of parliaments of five countries on the sidelines of the International Parliamentarian Union (IPU) conference at UN headquarters.

As the 8th assembly reconvened and settled down to legislative business, it is hoped that the House would begin to manifest another phase of effectiveness and provide true representation to constituents in all the geopolitical zones of the country and the Nigerian people.

Indeed it remains to be seen how the Yakubu Dogara-led chamber will address a number of issues, particularly the prevailing unfavorable economic climate, the 2016 budget proposal, protest by some members over the decision of the Executive to resort to monthly payment of salaries to legislators. The outgone 7th Assembly federal lawmakers enjoyed quarterly allocation which came in lump sum. These, among others are some of the controversies that will form the crux of discussions at the eight National Assembly of the House of Representatives.

Notwithstanding the challenges, which may have conspired to frustrate the House at the beginning, credit must be given the parliament on how it was able to hit the ground running in many legislative activities in the last six months.