GAVEL
Two years after, the leadership of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila-led ninth House of Representatives faces public scrutiny. Udora Orizu reports
On June 11, the 9th House of Representatives, led by Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, marked its second year in office. The 9th House had soon after its inauguration in 2019, rolled out a ‘joint task’ agenda, which it said would be the framework that would guide their operations in the next four years. In the agenda, the green chamber resolved to return Nigeria to the January-December budget cycle, approve legislative frameworks to curb increasing youth unemployment, fast-track the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, electoral act, block revenue leakages, security of lives and property, fight against corruption and so on.
Summary of First Year
The lawmakers’ first year in office had scores of bills passed and several motions adopted at plenary, which either garnered praises or criticism for the lawmakers. Gbajabiamila in particular, sponsored critical Bills such as the Physically-challenged (Empowerment) Bill 2019; Criminalisation of Estimated Billing System Bill 2019 and Students Loan (Access to Higher Education Bill) 2019, among others.
On motions, the lawmakers sponsored and adopted several motions including those condemning extra-judicial killings, calling for the resignation of service chiefs over rising insecurity and stiffer penalty for rape just to name a few.
On insecurity, the House had at different sittings sought ways to help the executive arm of government bring an end to insecurity in the country. Late last year, the lawmakers invited the President to come and explain what his government was doing to end insecurity in the country.
Also, since their inauguration, the House members always intervened in several matters of state. For instance, the Speaker, last year applied some skills to convince his colleagues to donate their two months salary to the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. The advent of COVID-19 also prompted the House to introduce and pass the Economic Stimulus Bill, which was to ensure that the government provide certain incentives to bolster the economy. But the Senate did not concur with the bill before the National Assembly shut down in March 2020.
Gbajabiamila intervened in the planned strike by different bodies of health workers. His intervention brought amicable resolution to the issues at hand, leading to the suspension of planned strikes at various times. The Speaker equally ensured that the House took a definite stand, when Nigerians suffered xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
He further met with the Chinese Ambassador on the status of Nigeria at the outbreak of the pandemic in Nigeria, the Speaker equally held a meeting with Minister of Power over better electricity supply for Nigerians during the lockdown in response to a Nollywood actor’s complaint, while also leading the charge for two-month free electricity supply to Nigerians during lockdown although the two months free electricity for Nigerians was never achieved during the lockdown.
However, he faced criticisms, when he introduced the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill. The Bill generated so many controversies and was condemned by Nigerians, who described its provisions as infringing on fundamental human rights.
The lawmakers also failed to let Nigerians know the outcome of several probes embarked upon by some committees in both chambers. Particularly, the Chinese loan probe, probe of alleged financial malfeasance by the former Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and so many others, which generated controversies.
The Second Year
While the 9th House, two years down the line, may have made some strides in achieving some of the promises it made to the Nigerian people in their legislative agenda, it however failed to meet up with the deadline it gave for the passage of critical legislations, as well as ensuring the implementation of the budget.
On budget reforms, the lawmakers as promised returned the budget cycle to the January-December calendar, breaking the jinx of budget delays that had bedeviled the previous assemblies since 1999. Also, apart from prompt passage of the budgets, the finance bill has also been consecutively reviewed two years in a row (2020 and 2021).
However, while the lawmakers have ensured timely passage of the budgets, no changes have been made in areas of implementation and executive compliance with the budget.
On pending key Bills, both principal officers of the National Assembly at various fora assured Nigerians that they will ensure the passage of the long awaited Petroleum Industry Bill, Electoral Act Amendment Bill and so on.
The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila had promised that the National Assembly would pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and the Electoral Amendment Bill by first quarter of 2021. But, the lawmakers failed to keep their promise, leading to backlash from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), who bemoaned their failure to conclude and transmit the Electoral Act Amendment Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
On the review of the 1999 Constitution, the lawmakers are on the verge of giving the Nigerian people what it described as the people-oriented constitution.
While the Senate is done with both zonal and national public hearing, the House on its part has concluded its zonal public hearing, with the exception of Imo and Abia States, which were postponed by the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Idris Wase, following the recent murder of a former Presidential adviser and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Ahmed Gulak in Owerri, Imo State.
Though the lawmakers are optimistic that the exercise would be successful this time, many Nigerians have expressed doubts on whether the 9th National Assembly could pass the necessary constitutional reforms, due to the latest positions taken by Lawan on the issue of restructuring.
On security, from 2019 till date, a total of 98 resolutions had been passed by the House on insecurity in Nigeria. Beyond this, the leadership of the House as well as various standing and special committees had undertaken on-the-spot assessments of crises areas around the country including the hotspots of Borno, Katsina, and Zamfara.
On the concerns about killings and other criminal activities in the country in 2020, the House invited the President to address members on the security situation in Nigeria. However the President shunned the invitation despite initially saying he would honour it.
The House has also severally engaged the National Security Adviser (NSA); the service chiefs; paramilitary chiefs; the Controller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service; and the Managing Director of Nigeria Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) in sessions to address insecurity.
In a “Special Summit on National Security” organised by the House from May 26 to 29, 2021, the House engaged stakeholders in a deep dive into Nigeria’s security situation. This interaction produced strong recommendations that were forwarded to the President for implementation.
Beyond motions, the House has also taken concrete steps to legislate on security issues. On June 9, the House introduced nine (9) new security bills to the floor. The bills are the Armed Forces Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (HB. 1405); Police Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (HB. 1406); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Act, 2003 (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (HB. 1407); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Act, 2007 (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (HB. 1408); Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021; Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (HB. 1410); Customs and Excise Management Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (HB. 1411); ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms, Light Weapons and Ammunition (Ratification and Enforcement) Bill, 2021 (HB. 1413); and National Security Agencies Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Finally, in a series of actions to promote police reform, the House passed the revised Police Act 2020 and the Police Service Commission Reform Bill, 2020, which the President assented to in November 2020.
On anti-corruption, the House promised to set up an anti-corruption court to try corruption cases quickly, which has not been done. Also, investigative hearings to check corruption has not been fruitful, an example is the controversial NDDC probe, which Nigerians are yet to be informed of the outcome.
On press freedom, the House on June 9, 2021 differed on the decision by the federal government to ban the use of Twitter in Nigeria. The Speaker had at plenary directed the relevant House committees to probe legality of the ban. But his decision was frowned at by members of the opposition (PDP),who staged a walkout, after a mild protest on the floor of the House.
The Weak Points
With the emergence of Lawan and Gbajabiamila as principal officers of the National Assembly, it appeared that the principle of checks and balances may have disappeared. Since the duo assumed office, almost every request sought by President Buhari has been given express approval.
For instance, despite the country’s debt profile, the 9th National Assembly keeps approving several loan requests by President Buhari. Last year, the lawmakers approved $5.5 billion loan request for the President to finance 2020 budget deficits, which they had since approved, the request came weeks after the lawmakers approved a loan of N850bn for the federal government and another $22.79bn loan.
Recently, Buhari wrote to both chambers of the National Assembly, seeking approval for another N2.3 trillion ($6.18bn) external loan to finance the 2021 budget deficit of N5.6 trillion.
The President also sought from the lawmakers a concurrent approval of a total sum of USD 3,837,281,256 plus Euro 910,000,000 and Grant Component of USD 10,000,000 for donor fund projects under the 2018-2020 federal government external borrowing rolling plan.
The fresh requests came a month after the Senate and the House of Representatives approved the sum of $1.5bn and €995 million external borrowings for the federal government to finance various priority projects of the federal government and to support the state governments facing fiscal challenges.
Though Nigerians have expressed concerns by the current move, it still won’t stop the lawmakers from approving the loan requests.
Another weakness is the lack of legislative cooperation from the Senate. While the House has always speedily concurred to bills passed by the Senate, the red chamber is slow and reluctant in considering bills passed by the House, leading to complaints from House members.
Also, party affiliation is another weakness of the 9th House. Although many APC lawmakers are not biased, when it comes to voicing their views on issue of insecurity, however, they have not been able to assert their position, when it comes to other topical issues due to the fact that they belong to the ruling party.
Another weakness of the House is the fact that resolutions and recommendations from committees investigations are just advisory and not enforcible. Also, the House, after several warnings and threats, has failed to invoke constitutional provisions to order arrest of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government that shuns its invitations.
However, as they commence their third legislative year, one hopes the lawmakers will be able to pass critical bills such as the PIB, Electoral Act etc and also deliver on their promise of amending the 1999 constitution.
