From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The Year 2020 will be remembered as one in which the House of Representatives promised so much and delivered so little. The House, particularly the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, displayed so much zeal to proffer legislative solutions to most of the problems plaguing the country, but fell short in matching words with actions.

The chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, at the beginning of the year had told journalists, in Abuja,  that the House will shock those, who refer to it as a “rubber stamp” assembly.

Kalu stated that the Green Chamber, in 2020, will prioritise the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, as well as proffer legislative solutions to the security challenges bedeviling the country, among others.

He said, “we are committed to  ensuring that  the Petroleum Industry Bill is passed. We would also fine-tune the electoral law to address the people’s concerns.

“ We would also look in the area of security, because the cries of the people who have lost their lives are giving us sleeplessness night. We also intend to do an appraisal of the Boko Haram fight.”

Nevertheless, as the curtain falls on 2020, many of the things the House set out to do remained undone or at best uncompleted.

While many of the bills and motions have been tactically abandoned, the Green Chamber may probably return to others in the New Year.

However, pundits say the failure of the House to achieve most of the things, it set out to do in the year could be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which crippled activities in the polity for a substantial part of the year, and outright lack of political will.

Pending key bills

In  the course of the year, the House commenced work on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2020 and a Bill to amend the Police Service Commission ( PSC), as part of its police reforms agenda. However, contrary to the promise of the House spokesman that the PIB and the Electoral Act Amendment Bill will be given priority attention and passed in 2020, both proposed legislations are still at the committee stage.

The PIB and Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which were among the bills carried over from the last assembly, are believed to be crucial to the reform of the petroleum industry and electoral system respectively.

Constituency Town Hall meeting on out of school children

The House in March at a special session on the challenge of “out of school children” in the country had resolved to hold a Constituency Town Meeting in the 360 federal constituencies across the country on the issue.

The Town Hall meeting was scheduled to hold in the last weekend of March, 2020. 

At the special session, Omowumi Ogunshola, in a motion on the “need for the House to deliberate on the matter of the millions of out of school children in Nigeria and to consider lasting solutions”, had drawn the attention of the House to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report on out of school children in the country.

Ogunshola stated that , according to UNICEF,  about  10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school while only 61 percent of 6-11 year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receiving early childhood education.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19  pandemic became serious in the country before the scheduled date; thereby leading to the adjournment of the House. However, the programme has not been mentioned again since a semblance of normalcy returned to the country.

Probes

In the course of the year, the House embarked on several probes. However, the Chinese loan probe and the probe of alleged financial malfeasance by the former Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) stands out because of the interest and controversies generated by the two investigations.  Ironically, the two probes were not pursued to their logical ends.

The House had on May 5  mandated its committee on NDDC  to investigate all issues relating to alleged  misapplication and misappropriation of funds by the  NDDC.

It was also mandated to conduct a “comprehensive investigation into all procurements and financial transactions of the commission for this fiscal year to ascertain compliance with relevant provisions of the law.”

After weeks of brickbats between the House Committee on NDDC and the interventionist agency, the probe kicked off in July.

Akpabio, who appeared before the committee, seemingly opened the Pandora’s box as he accused members of the National assembly of being major beneficiaries of contracts in the NDDC.  An allegation, the House said the Minister has allegedly not been able to substantiate.

The probe assumed a dramatic twist, when the then acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Kemebradikumo Pondei collapsed while he was being grilled by the lawmakers.

After Pondei’s collapse, the committee adjourned sine die. However, why the members of the public were waiting for the panel to resume sitting, it submitted its report to the House.

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The NDDC probe report, which was laid before the House in July is yet to be considered, five months after.

Similarly, the probe of the various loans obtained by the country from China by the House Committee on Treaties and Protocol was brought to an abrupt halt on August 19, following a circular by the House leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, directing all standing or ad-hoc Committees to suspend all investigative hearing pending the resumption of the House, from its annual vacation, in September.

The committee headed by Ossai Nicholas Ossai, had at its inaugural sitting raised the alarm that most of the loans agreement between Nigeria and China were capable of jeopardising the territorial integrity of the country. Events at the panel assumed a dramatic turn, after a spat between Ossai and the Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, with the latter accusing the committee chairman of pursuing a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agenda.

Few days after the clash, the leadership through a letter by Ado-Doguwa suspended the investigation, as well as all committee activities, on the ground that it was wrong for committees to hold investigations and other oversight activities during recess.  The probe is yet to resume, more than four months after.

COVID-19 interventions

Another major business, which the House could not pull through in the course of the year, were legislations aimed at ameliorating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the citizens. 

The House before suspension of plenary for two weeks, on March 24, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, had rushed through the  Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill. The bill sought “to ease the burden of importation and financial burden, thereby fostering easier access and reduction in the price,” as well as provide a new tax regime for corporate bodies, with rebates to encourage companies in the country to maintain their payroll status for the immediate term.

The bill, which was sponsored by the speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila was taken through first, second, committee consideration and third reading in less than two hours. But that was where it ended. Nothing was heard of the proposed legislation again.

Similarly, Gbajabiamila, in the midst of the first wave of the pandemic, in April, during a meeting between the National Assembly leadership and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning,  Zainab Ahmad, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, had  promised that the House will enact a law to give two months free electricity to every household in the country, as part of efforts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on Nigerians.

The speaker, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, was quoted to have said:”It is one thing that will touch every household. As I said earlier, when we engaged, I discussed with the electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) to package whatever they would require, if the government can give them, for us to allow for two months’ free electricity for Nigerians…

“When you are saving people their electricity and the fact that they now have stable electricity for two months, you are also saving the monies that would go into the payment of those bills at least for two months.” That initiative like the Economic Stimulus Bill, ended as a mirage.

Security

The security challenge in the country was the most discussed issue in the House in 2020.  The parliament started off the year with motions on security and also ended the year with security related motions. However, it was all motion without movement.

Two of the House resolutions stand out. They are the resolutions on the sack of the service chiefs and the summon of President Muhammadu Buhari to appear before the House, to brief lawmakers on rising insecurity across the country.

At the resumption of plenary on January 28, the House had expressed indignation over the state of security in the country.

After an intense debate, it passed a vote of no confidence on the Service chiefs and demanded their resignation. The lawmakers also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack them, in the event that they fail to resign.

The Chief whip, Tahir Monguno, while leading a debate on the motion had stated that  the upsurge of insurgency in the North East now constitutes a threat to the territorial integrity of the country.

According to him,” I regret to announce that of recent, there is resurgence in the activities of Boko Haram, to the extent of threatening the territorial integrity of this country as manifested in the consistent attacks on Maiduguri- Damaturu Road. And this Maiduguri- Damaturu Road is the only axis that Maiduguri and Yobe State has to the other parts of the country. And also links Nigeria to the republic of Cameroun and Republic of Chad. If this is allowed to go on, not only social activities but business activities will be affected”.

In the succeeding months, the House entertained other motion on security, leading to an interface with the parliament and the Service chiefs and other security chiefs on June 11. The climax was the December 1, resolution to summon President Buhari over the security challenges in the country, especially in the North East geo-political zone.

Gbajabiamila, after a visit to Aso Rock, to convey the resolution of the House to the President, announced gleefully that President Buhari has accepted to honour the invitation of the parliament. Pronto, the House leadership rolled out the drums to celebrate the impending appearance of the President, which it considered a major milestone in its search for solutions to the country’s security challenges. However, the joy was short-lived.

On December 10, when  President Buhari was scheduled to address a joint session of the National Assembly,   there was no sign of the President anywhere around the National Assembly complex.

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had the day before said the parliament lacks the constitutional power to summon the President to brief it on security related matters. 

Thoroughly embarrassed by the turn of events, the House leadership has completely avoided any discourse that has to do with the botched appearance of President Buhari before the parliament.

Nevertheless, Gbajabiamila said the House achieved so much in 2020. The Speaker, in an address to lawmakers, before the House commenced its Christmas/New Year holidays, on December 21, noted that the lawmakers worked assiduously to ensure that the country pulled through the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic through legislative interventions, among other accomplishments.

According to him, “despite an extraordinary torrent of misinformation and political mischief, the House moved forward with landmark legislation to reform our nation’s obsolete statutory framework for preventing and managing infectious diseases and pandemics so that we can be better prepared for the next time.”

The speaker added: “We worked with the Executive to address medical doctors and healthcare workers’ welfare demands and resolve a labour dispute that would have resulted in strike actions and walkouts with devastating consequences for too many of our citizens, amid a raging and deadly pandemic.”