Ndubuisi Orji Abuja
The outbreak of COVID-19 and the suspension of plenary and committee functions in the National Assembly has taken a toll on efforts to investigate alleged graft in five key sectors of the economy and has also hampered key legislations.
Sources at the National Assembly told Daily Sun that the lockdown has stalled the House of Representatives’ probe of the $30 billion annual revenue leakages arising from alleged malpractice in foreign exchange allocation to companies from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other sources for the importation of goods, payment of services, foreign loan. Also marred is the scheduled probe of work on the second Niger bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria road, to ascertain if the work executed by the contractors was commensurate with funds spent on these projects.
It was also learnt that the inability of members of the green chambers to meet has frustrated the investigation of commercial banks over alleged excess and illegal charges on accounts of individual depositors, corporate organisations and public institutions,the failure of the Federal Government’s N3.4 billion solar powered grid project and allegations of passport racketeering in the Nigerian Immigration Service.
It was also learnt the approval of a N500 billion COVID-19 Intervention fund submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari recently, as well as passage of emergency legislations to aid the fight against the pandemic in the country have been stalled owing to the inability of the lower chamber to hold plenary.
In March, the House after adopting various motions on the probes, mandated its relevant committees to commence investigations and report back between four to 12 weeks for further legislative actions.
However, six weeks after the motions were adopted, the committees have found it difficulty to commence work as a result of COVID-19 lockdown and sit-at-home order. The House had suspended plenary and all committee functions on March 23 to resume on April 8,but the resumption date was postponed indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) has urged the National Assembly to resort to virtual sittings and attend to pending legislative issues and emergency legislations.
Spokesperson of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, told Daily Sun, that it was not in the best interest of the country for the parliament to suspend sittings indefinitely as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
“The National Assembly can do virtual sitting. They should consider virtual sitting because it is important at this time,” Ologbondiyan said.
Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, however, disagreed with the recommendation of the PDP, saying the rules of the House does not recognise virtual proceedings.
“The House has been handling most issues through the leadership. And we are considering reconvening very soon, to attend to issues that cannot be handled by just the leadership. Virtual sitting is not in our House rules and we cannot act outside our rules. We are guided by the House rules,” Kalu told Daily Sun.