A Cerebral Legislator in the 9th House

Udora Orizu examines some of the noteworthy legislative activities of the Deputy Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Hon. Toby Okechukwu

An effective legislator is not only one who has integrity and conducts himself/herself in a disciplined manner, but also one who ensures that the main functions of the legislature which are making laws, representing constituencies and power balance are the core focus while carrying out his or her legislative activities.

Both chambers of the National Assembly consist of legislators who can be described as onlookers or bench warmers. Some of them do not attend plenary sessions, neither do they participate in the primary function of making laws.

The Deputy Minority Leader of the 9th House of Representatives, Hon. Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) is one of the few federal legislators that carry out the legislative duties expected of them by their constituents.

Okechukwu who represents Aninri/Awgu/Oji River constituency has been a member of the House since 2011, serving in the 7th and 8th Assemblies. Before his emergence as the Deputy Minority Leader of the 9th House, the lawmaker was until May 2019, Chairman House Committee on Works and Vice-Chairman Ethics and Privileges Committee. He was also a member of House Committees on Culture and Tourism, Justice, Steel, Pension, and Appropriations.

Okechukwu over the years is known to be a broad-minded lawmaker, who makes useful contributions to debates on bills and motions during plenary sessions. He also doesn’t hesitate to air his views on national issues which often provides solution to the problem at hand.

In the last two years, he has sponsored several bills and motions which have direct impact on his constituents and the nation at large.

Bills, Motions and Notable Contributions During Debates at Plenary

Some of his motions include, Motion on the need for the House to intervene and ensure that the planned strike by electricity workers is not allowed to take place; Motion on the need to investigate, apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of the gruesome murder of Mr. Eugene Iloabani in Oji River, Enugu State and motion on the need to investigate the gruesome murder of the Director General of Scientific Equipment Development Institute, SEDI, Enugu, Prof. Samuel Ndubuisi in Enugu; Motion on the need to uphold the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) Act in the implementation of the Special Public Works Programme; Motion on the need to Investigate the Status of Medical research in the fight against COVID-19 and Other disease in Nigeria; Motion on the need to investigate the security breaches and violence at the November 16, 2019 elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states; Motion on the Need to ensure Speedy Rehabilitation of Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

While most of his motions were adopted by his colleagues, however one of motions was stepped down in February 2021. The motion sought to obtain the report of the 2014 National Conference with the purpose of including it in the ongoing constitutional amendment process of the National Assembly.

While moving the motion, Okechukwu made reference to the reports of the 2014 National Conference and the report of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism chaired by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, saying that it will address the mileage and challenges being faced in the union.

Shortly after moving the motion, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Idris Wase, in his contribution, faulted the motion, saying it was procedurally wrong.

The Deputy Speaker explained that it was obligatory for owners of the documents to submit them to the committee if they considered it necessary.

Reacting, the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, asked Okechukwu if he was okay with the Deputy Speaker’s input even though the prayer of the motion was commendable.

Responding, Okechukwu agreed to withdraw it but added that the documents should be made available to the committee in the course of its sitting.

His Bills include Federal Roads Bill, 2019, National Roads Fund Bill, 2019, which has been passed by the House and transmitted to the Senate for concurrence.

Some of his notable contributions during plenary include his suggestions during the consideration of Twitter ban and Electronic Act amendment Bill reports

During the consideration of clause 52 in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill in July which led to altercations among the lawmakers, the Deputy Minority Leader had moved a motion that voting, accreditation and transmission of results shall be done electronically, contrary to what was stipulated in the section that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has the discretion to adopt electronic voting or any other method of voting in any election it conducts as it may deem fit. Okechukwu motion which was in tandem with the hope of Nigerians for the 2023 elections was however rejected by the Deputy Speaker Hon. Idris Wase, who ruled in favour of the ‘Nays’ despite the ‘Ayes’ having it.

On the Twitter ban report, Okechukwu, stated categorically that the committee had not done a prudent work on uncovering the reason behind the decision of the Federal Government to suspend the operation of micro-blogging company, Twitter in the country indefinitely.

The Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, had pre-empted the opposition lawmakers when he mandated the House Committees on Communication, Justice, Information and Culture, and National Security and Intelligence to immediately commence investigation into the circumstances of the decision by the Federal Government to suspend the operations of Twitter in Nigeria and the legal authority for the ban on the operations of the micro blogging platform.

However in the report, finally laid by the joint committee noted the pros and cons of social media but was silent on whether the suspension should be lifted or not.

Constituency Representation

Aside from sponsoring Bills, Motions or actively participating during plenary sessions, Okechukwu has attracted and embarked on several constituency projects and programmes.

Some of them include, “Payment of WAEC registration fees for students for 2019/2020, 2020/2021, Rehabilitation and building of classroom blocks, Provision of street light, youth empowerment and assistance to the less privileged people including women, Provision of palliatives to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown, Provision of solar powered borehole in various locations such as Obune Inyi, Oji River LGA, Empowerment training of 200 persons in Fish Value Chain Aquaculture, Construction and rehabilitation of several roads in his constituency.”

Views on Some National Issues

Whether in the chambers of the National Assembly or outside, the lawmaker is always confident, expressive and doesn’t shy away from speaking the truth and tackling the ruling government on issues of national importance.

During the clamour from some quarters for blanket amnesty for bandits, Okechukwu frowned at the development during his appearance on ARISE News, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers. He said, “What it does is to put a question mark on the integrity of the state to be the only organ that’s legitimately authorized to exercise violence in terms of carrying weapon of coercion. It means the state is operating from a compromised state, so it is not expected within the context of a country to begin to operate in such method. But if you want to negotiate, who do you want to negotiate with, is there a central command in regards to bandits or criminals? It will be an invitation to have various groups to spring up and begin to undertake such enterprise. The definition of who is a criminal or not is not a matter of opinion, it’s a matter of law. The criminal code clearly defines what a criminal is, you are a crook if you do things that offends the state. If banditry is not a crime, then I don’t know what is. There isn’t any way you can give it a new baptism and say it’s not criminal. It’s is crime in capital letters.”

Okechukwu also enjoined Nigerian leaders to tow the path of justice, equity, dialogue, and rule of law in order to arrest worsening insecurity and separatist agitations across the country.

Okechukwu said the nation was clearly in a state of anomie and dysfunction, although there were still opportunities to preserve the nation’s democracy and reconstruct the union to a more workable piece.

He reminded the nation that June 12 was designated Democracy Day in honour of a symbol of the nation’s democratic struggles, the late Chief MKO Abiola, who was unjustly denied the opportunity to exercise an overwhelmingly popular mandate handed him by the Nigerian people on June 12 1993, but only to be celebrated at death.

He charged elders and elected leaders to acknowledge that they were elected to solve problems and not to compound them by their attitudes, policies and utterances.