Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The outgoing Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Olatunde Ojo, may handover to the acting CNA, Sani Tambuwal, this week to enable him the former to proceed on his terminal leave, following the intervention of the Senate President Ahmad Lawan.
Findings revealed at the weekend that Lawan wrote a second letter to the National Assembly Service Commission, directing its Chairman Ahmed Amshi, to instruct Ojo to handover to Tambuwal and proceed on his three months Pre-retirement Leave immediately.
Multiple sources at the NASC confirmed the latest development on conditions of anonymity, noting that the outgoing clerk would get the commission’s letter, latest by Monday.
One of the sources said the controversy surrounding the presence of two clerks in the National Assembly had been finally laid to rest.
The source said: “This is because Lawan, has directed the leadership of the National Assembly Service Commission to direct the outgoing Clerk to the National Assembly to hand over to the acting CNA, Magaji Sani Tambuwal and proceed on his Pre-retirement Leave immediately.
“We expect our Executive Chairman at NASC to act on the Senate President’s directive, latest by Monday so that Ojo could hand over to Tambuwal on Tuesday and end the issue of having two people laying claims to being the CNA.”
THISDAY checks revealed that Ojo would no longer occupy the office of CNA during the period of his three-month pre-retirement leave until his eventual retirement on February 14, 2023.
The confusion arose penultimate week when the NASC acted on a letter by the Senate President, recalling Ojo, citing the need for a substantive CNA to be in place to authenticate the clean copy of 2023 Appropriation Bill that would be transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.
The Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) had earlier written a letter to the NASC countering the position of the Senate President that bills could not be authenticated by acting CNA.
The union said the acting CNA occupying the office of the CNA exercises the powers of the Office of the CNA and therefore could authenticate bills as required by the Authentication Act.
Also on Friday, a Coalition of Civil Society Organisations had threatened to start series of protests in the National Assembly from next week, if the leadership of the country’s apex legislative institution failed to address the presence of two clerks in the federal parliament.
Reacting to the issue at a news conference in Abuja on Friday, a Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Justice and Equity (CCSO-JE), an umbrella body of civil society organisations that major on democracy, good governance, justice and equity for all in Nigeria, described the situation as an anomaly.
The coalition’s Chief Convener, Comrade Olayemi Success, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, threatened that the group would organise series of protests from next week if the matter was not resolved in favour of the acting CNA.
He said: “These are some of the anomalies that the civil society groups cannot close our eyes and allow to happen.
“We cannot also pretend not to know the danger involved in such recklessness. We are aware that as it is now, there are two people we can refer to as Clerk to the National Assembly.
“This is a very terrible and bad. One of them ought to have proceeded on terminal leave, statutorily he should be on three months before he would eventually leave the service February 14.
“The National Assembly Service Commission that announced Tambuwal as the acting CNA, I want to assume naturally that the outgoing CNA would have proceeded on his Pre-retirement Leave.
“In any case, our meeting, we hope to resolve to write a strong worded petition to all the authorities concerned to address the issue within a few hours.
“If they refused to act within the time limit, the civil society organisations would not keep quiet. We will not hesitate to carry out a protest to the National Assembly.
“That is after our petition, which would be submitted on Monday, and the ultimatum we would give, would have lapsed.
“The presence of two clerks in the National Assembly is the type of recklessness that people should not keep quiet about. It is unreasonable. The terminal leave is not optional. We should not tolerate such things.
“We are also calling on the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, being Chairman and Vice Chairman of the National Assembly respectively, to act, and act fast on the issue.”
