From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The year 2021 could pass as one of the most controversial years in the House of Representatives in recent times. The House, no doubt, made modest achievements in the discharge of its legislative duties. However, every major legislative intervention by the Green Chamber in the outgoing year was characterized by controversy.
From the adoption of the three percent equity for host communities in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, to the proposed amendment of the Nigeria Press Council (NPC) Act, it was controversy all the way.
Efforts by the House to intervene in the suspension of the operation of micro-blogging sites, Twitter, and other actions of the executive arm of government were equally laced with controversies.
Besides, the defections of members of the opposition political parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were also trailed by controversies in the House, as it pitched the minority caucus against the leadership.
However, of all the controversies that trailed the activities of the House in 2021, a few stood out.
Electoral Act Amendment Bill
The Electoral Act Amendment Bill is, perhaps, the most controversial issue, in the Green Chamber in 2021. The first controversy about the bill was caused by the deputy speaker, Idris Wase’s ruling during the clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill on July 15.
Deputy minority leader, Toby Okechukwu had proposed an amendment to 52(2) of the proposed electoral law to the effect that transmission of election results should be by electronic means. But, before subjecting the motion to vote, the deputy speaker had opposed him by saying that only 20 percent of his constituency had broadband coverage
“Today in Nigeria, I don’t know the coverage of the broadband, but I make bold to say, and you can go and verify that in my constituency, we don’t have more than 20 percent coverage. Have we been able to cover all parts of the federation that we now want to go for electronic transmission?” he stated.
When the proposal was subjected to a voice vote, the majority of the members voted in support. However, the deputy speaker gave it to the ‘nays.’ After the controversial ruling, the House erupted in crisis, and in no time, members were engaged in fisticuffs.
The development forced the House to adjourn abruptly to the next day. Before the adjournment, the speaker invited the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) to address the House on the matter, the next day.
At the resumption of plenary the following day, only the NCC was present as the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, was conspicuously absent. The speaker later explained that the leadership withdrew the invitation to Yakubu because they thought the electoral body should not be part of the discourse.
However, the NCC Executive Commissioner, Technical Service, Maska Ubale, who represented the commission said only 50.3 percent of the 19,0000 polling units in the country were covered by 2G and 3G networks.
When the consideration of the electoral bill report resumed at the Committee of the Whole, another controversy ensued over where the House stopped the previous day. Consequently, members of the minority caucus stormed out of the chamber in protest with the minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu, leading them.
Elumelu later told journalists that “we have no other choice than to say that we cannot be part of that fake process where they’re depriving Nigerians of their right for their votes to be counted accurately.”
Outside the parliament, the decision of the House to make direct primary mandatory for all political parties was equally a source of controversy, with governors and political parties kicking against it.
Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent to the bill, citing the clause on direct primary election for political parties as his reason.
PIB controversy
One of the biggest achievements of the House in the outgoing year was the passage of the 18 year-old Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). The passage of legislation, which was first introduced in the parliament in 2003, had been stalled by controversy over the years.
However, the House broke the jinx in June when the bill was finally passed. However, this is was not without a major controversy.
The Green Chamber had, in the PIB, adopted five per cent as equity fund for the oil producing host communities, against the three percent in the Senate version of the bill. This necessitated the setting up of a conference committee to harmonize the differences in the two versions of the bill passed by the upper and lower legislative chambers.
However, the conference committee adopted a three percent equity fund for host communities. Expectedly, this did not go down well with members of the House. Consequently, on July 15, lawmakers protested on the floor of the House that it was five percent for the host communities or nothing.
Surprisingly, the House adopted the conference report on the PIB on July 15, shortly after members of the minority caucus staged a walk-out over a dispute on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Regardless, Elumelu, while addressing journalists, said the adoption of the conference committee report was a nullity as it was not listed in the Order Paper.
He said; “On the issue of the PIB, the House could not come to a conclusion whether it is three percent or five percent. As a matter of fact, the Speaker ruled on Thursday, directing the conference committee to go back and review it and ensure that they stand by the House position, which is five percent.
“Now, we are hearing, even when it is not in the order paper, that they want to smuggle it in and pass it. This is the unfortunate situation that we have found ourselves in; it has never been this bad.”
NPC Amendment Bill
Also, plans by the House to amend the Nigeria Press Council (NPC) Act generated so much controversy within and outside the polity.
The bill, which was sponsored by the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Information, Ethics, Value and Orientation, Segun Odebunmi, sought to impose very stringent sanctions against media establishments.
During the public hearing on the bill, a coalition of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), comprising the International Press Centre (IPC), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Centre for Media Law and Advocacy (CMLA) and Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), described it as attempt to curtail press freedom in the country.
IPC’s Executive Director, Lanre Arogundade, who spoke on behalf of the coalition, cautioned the House against anything that would hamper freedom of the press in the country.
“A consideration is that the amendment seeks an unabashed focus to restrict freedom of expression, while masking the toga of something else. It attempts to do what other laws have done, like the cybercrimes Acts, which sections 24 and 38, in no fewer than 10 instances, have been used to clampdown on bloggers or journalists for expressing opinions antagonistic to politically or economically powerful elites,” he said.
Arogundade added that “the attempt to subject the entire media sector to the control of the Minister is further reinforced by Section 9 (Code of Conduct), which further provides in 9(1) that the Council shall establish a national press and ethical code for media houses and media practitioners, which shall come into effect and be disseminated after the approval by the Minister.
“A professional code of conduct for the media should never be subject to the approval of the Minister or any other political authority.”
Similarly, the Nigeria Press Organisation (NPO), which comprises the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), admonished the House to halt further deliberation on the bill as it is a subject of litigation at the Supreme Court.
Twitter suspension
The decision of the Federal Government to suspend the activities of social networking and micro-blogging site, Twitter, was also a source of controversy among lawmakers in the outgoing year.
The controversy which started with the decision to investigate the legality or otherwise of the suspension announced on June 4, reached a climax during the consideration of the report by the House joint committee on the issue.
During the consideration of the report, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, for the first time since the inauguration of the Ninth House, disagreed publicly with his deputy.
Wase, who presided over the Committee of the Whole, had picked holes with the report, stating that it was not exhaustive. He advised that the consideration should be deferred to enable the committee to do a better job.
“I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that truly, they need to have exhausted more avenues. I noted one point, which bothers on security. For the fact that it bothers on security, and the content said, invite the Minister, it does not preclude them from inviting the National Security Adviser. Hearing from the minister (of information), who may just have a tip of information cannot be the basis of writing recommendation that the Nigerian government has taken based on security.
“I still want to say that they needed to have gone further. It has shown even from the report that the Chairman, National Security, was not even an active participant in it. It has rendered the work, as far as I am concerned, to some extent, not thoroughly done,” the deputy speaker had stated.
However, Gbajabiamila said the committee discharged its mandate effectively, noting that it was “uncharitable” for anyone to criticize the work.
He said: “I think it is uncharitable, almost disingenuous to come and try to lampoon the work done by the Committee. Whatever side of the divide we are on, the committee has discharged its responsibility objectively.”
After the speaker’s submission, Wase, apparently in deference to him, proceeded with the consideration of the report.
Executive order on gun use
Also, during the year, there was a drama on the floor of the House, as APC and PDP lawmakers bickered over a motion calling for a review of the executive order banning ownership and issuance of new licenses for firearms.
The sponsor of the motion, Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, had sought for the leave of the House to have the motion rescheduled. According to the lawmaker, he was not comfortable with comments made by Ado-Doguwa on the motion.
The House leader, while addressing the parliament on the issue said: “I am also the ambassador of the government on the floor of the House and I believe that the decision of the government is well informed.
“That is my position. Abonta you have the liberty to bring your motion now to be killed or to delay the killing of your motion.”
At the end of the tension soaked debate, Abonta stepped down the motion for the next legislative day subject to the convenience of the House. The motion was never rescheduled for consideration.
Dogfight over defections
In 2021, the minority caucus repeatedly crossed swords with the House leadership, as well as APC members in the House over the defections of opposition lawmakers to the ruling party.
The legality of the defection of lawmakers from the political parties, on whose platform they were elected to the House to the APC was the bone of contention all through the year.
Section 68(1) (g)of the Constitution makes it illegal for lawmakers to defect from the party on whose platform they were elected into the House and still keep their seats, except the defection is as a result of a division in their former party.
However, for Gbajabiamila, each defection was an opportunity to taunt the minority caucus over its fast depleting rank, albeit to the consternation of opposition lawmakers.
In one instance, the deputy minority leader accused the speaker of alleged disobedience to the 1999 Constitution (as amended), especially as it affects defections.
He said: “We observe with dismay the continued disobedience to our Constitution by the speaker who continues to ignore its provisions.”