House of Representatives: Journey so far

By Kassim Omomia

When the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, told his colleagues at the resumption of the plenary session on Tuesday, 8th June 2021, that they had approached the halfway mark of the second session of the House of Representatives, and that it was important they showcased the records of their activities, he meant well and was full of enthusiasm.

His conviction perhaps was that the House may have met the expectations of the Nigerian people they represent in the National Assembly. “We must present a record of our activities over the last two years to the Nigerian people’’, he had said, enthusiastically. As part of the preparations, he directed the House Committee on Monitoring and Implementation of the Legislative Agenda to work with all the standing committees of the House to assemble a record of the oversight activities of the Committees.

He further asked the Chairman of the Committee on Monitoring and Implementation of the Legislative Agenda to share a reporting template developed in collaboration with the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies for the show, and subsequently warned all Chairmen of committees to key into the process and turn out good and quality reports in record time. Recalled that the proclamation of the Ninth House, nay the National Assembly, by President Muhammadu Buhari, in line with Section 64 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, took place at the White House complex on Tuesday 11th June 2019. Between the said date and presently, essentially June 11, 2021, the House of Representatives has been in session for two years of a four-year tenure that will end in 2023.

How has the House of Representatives fared?
Interestingly, rolling out the drums and clinking glasses are not unusual or out of the ordinary in celebrating another successful House session. But in the eyes of the ordinary Nigerian and constituents who the lawmakers represent, have they fared well? Did they represent well, how many creative and meaningful Bills which the President will not withhold assent were considered and subsequently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.?  Or are the representatives’ sheer specialists in Motions, whose resolutions are hardly obeyed because according to the executive, they are mere advisory.

Curiously, the quest for qualitative Bills has become expedient in today’s democracy and parliamentary philosophy because the intent and purpose of such a proposed piece of Legislation require a solution solving poise, exploratory tendencies, and not a photocopier, which the lawmakers had tended. At the inception of the national assembly in 2019, the current ICPC chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye had drawn the lawmakers’ attention during a one-week induction for new lawmakers of the proliferation of duplicated Bills.

He enjoined the new lawmakers then, to be innovative in proposing and presenting only new Bills that will not only add value to the people but expand jurisprudence in the administration of justice in the country.

While his position in that paper he presented at the Hilton Hotel venue of the retreat was sacrosanct and does not detach from the tumultuous road most Bills had traveled, especially the electoral amendment bill President Buhari had declined, Owasanoye’s submission is akin to the very many germane reasons the president had canvassed, declining assent- duplication, not professionally researched. Unfortunately, this been the case with several Bills, either refused by the President or not considered by the House, with instances of many.

However, in his treatise, entitled, ‘The Journey so far of the 9th House of Representatives at two’  the spokesman of the House,  Hon. Ben Kalu, gave the House a pat on the back for a job well done and assured further that as the people’s parliament, they would continue to seek out informed engagement and constructive partnership as it works to implement the policy objectives set out in the new legislative agenda.

BILLS
According to him, a comparative analysis of the 9th House and previous assemblies revealed that the 9th House had performed better in bill consideration and passage. He explained that, as of June 10, 2021, the House had considered 853 bills, out of which 41 were passed, 66 are awaiting action by the Committee of the Whole, and 105 had passed second reading. The Bills passed, including the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (Amendment) Bill; the Physically Challenged (Empowerment) Bill; National Orientation Agency Act (Amendment) Bill; Labour Act (Amendment) Bill; Finance Bill; Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Bill; Federal Roads Bill, 2019; Public Procurement Act (Amendment) Bill; the Company and Allied Matters Bill assented to by the President; the Finance Bill, 2020; the Deep Offshore Bill; and the Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill, 2020.

On the Petroleum Industry Bill, he said the House has also made significant progress in the consideration of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which passed second reading after a thorough debate in November 2020. According to him, the House is set to receive the report of the ad-hoc committee on PIB after which the bill will proceed to passage in line with the commitments of the House. Electoral reforms, he disclosed that a lot of progress has also been made in the consideration of the much-anticipated Electoral Act (amendment) Bill which will addresses reform issues like electronic voting and funding of political parties. He announced that the report of the relevant committee is currently before the House as the bill awaits passage.  Other issues like the Constitutional Review of the 1999 Constitution is ongoing, with the zonal public hearing taking place across the six geopolitical zones in the country.

APPROPRIATION AND BUDGET REFORMS
Further to its promise on national budget reforms, the Appropriation Bill was passed in time to return the national budget to a January-December budget cycle. The House has since then, maintained this as a standard in budget consideration.

MOTIONS.
So far, the House has considered a total of 730 motions. 484 were taken in the first session and 246 considered in the second session. Several of the motions considered by the House, were products of diligently conducted needs analysis to reflect the will of the people, exercise its oversight responsibilities as stipulated in Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, and address front-burner issues in the nation. 98 of the resolutions, Kalu argued, have addressed various challenges in insecurity while others have addressed other socio-economic issues and performance issues by the executive.

PETITIONS
The House received a total of 163 petitions all of which were referred to the Committee on Public Petitions for consideration.  But in this session, the petitions laid were 64, only four were considered. But picking holes in activities of the House, particularly on the two famous Bills, the PIB and the Electoral Amendment Bill, a source close to the House alleged that part of the report of the Bill was written in Ghana, wondering why the committee would decide to leave the comfort of Nigeria to the West African nation just to write a report of the PIB. The insider argued that with what may have transpired, the outcome of the Bill may not be what Nigerians expected, particularly the Host communities that are the critical stakeholders.

According to the source knowledgeable with the ongoings in the committee, it was learned that at a time, besides Ghana where the report was written, Dubai was being contemplated, but for the COVID- 19 face-off between Nigeria and the country’s national carrier, Emirates, it was almost a done deal. Accordingly, the committee is said to be still working on the report, this time within the confines of the country. On the much-awaited Electoral Reforms Bill, the delay could be traced to the Leadership of the House, as according to informed sources, who confided in this paper, the report was to be laid before the two-week short break, but was further deferred indefinitely by the body of principal officers of the House.

Recall a member of the Benue House of Assembly, Hon. Matthew Inuwa had slammed the National Assembly over this continuous delay. In his reaction, he said it was a ploy by the ruling All  Peoples Congress (APC) to frustrate the 2023 elections as they did in 2019. In the same vein, Hon. Frank Ineke, the former member of the House of Representatives, expressed displeasure in the delay to pass the Bill finally by both houses, given the expectation of the political road map the proposed piece of legislation will outline ahead of the 2023 election season. But assessing the House of Representatives generally in the last two sessions, a constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, described the performance as glaringly dismal.

He told this paper that what the 9th session has done so far is not near the 8th National Assembly’s House of Representatives.

Chief Ozekhome argued that the current House has constituted has been unable to shake off the asphyxiating iron grip of President Buhari and his despotic Government of fisticuffs, propagation, and opaqueness. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria further added that the green chamber has never been pro-masses or regenerative of democratic nuances and tenets. “It is afraid of its own shadow, a toothless bulldog, that can’t even bark, let alone biting”.