When last did you see the lawmaker representing your consitituency in the House of Representatives on the floor of the House contributing to debate or participating in a committee assignment?

Do they participate in plenary or committee duties at all?

  If you don’t see your lawmaker at the plenary or Committee assignments regularly and he or she is not sick , there is the likelihood that he or she is a ghost worker.

From time to time,  you hear government at various levels talking about ghost workers on their pay roll. And their plans to eliminate them.  Ghost workers are “employees”,  whose name are on the payroll, but are never seen. However,  they keep collecting salaries every month.

So, are there ghost workers in the hallowed chamber? Yes, there are. And plenty of them too.

There are 360 members of the House of Representatives,  drawn from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT).

Ironically, on the average less than 120 lawmakers participate actively in  plenary, in any of the three days the House sits in a week. If you add the number of members absent from plenary,  because they are  on official assignment or indisposed,  you’ll probably have about 180 members,  participating actively in the activities of the House.

Hardly does the Green Chamber record up to 100 members at the commencement of plenary each day. However,  as the day progresses,  you’ll see the lawmakers strolling in leisurely. Be you know it, they will start strolling out again. Usually,  the presiding officer will be lucky to have up to 80 members stay till the end of proceeding.

Many of them just come merely to sign the attendance register and run off to God knows where. While some take delight in sitting in their offices idly away, while serious businesses are going on in the chamber.

Yet,  at the end of the month,  they collect salaries. Presently, each member of the House of Representatives  gets a total of N8.26m monthly. N7.6 million is for running /overhead cost while N660, 000 is monthly salary . This is in addition to other perks of office. Sadly, only a few of them earn this pay. I  actually do not have any problem with the remenuration of our lawmakers.  My grouse is that many of them, like the ghost workers in the civil service,  are just collecting these monies without working for same.

In the present session of the House of Representatives,  there are a lot lawmakers  who have neither sponsored a bill nor moved a motion since the House was inaugurated in June 2015. Many of them have not even seconded a motion,  not to talk of contributing to debates in the House.

According a recent report by a national daily,  no fewer than 161 members of the lower chamber of the National Assembly  are yet to sponsor a single bill, 26 months after they assumed office.  Although 199 members are credited with the sponsorship of one bill or the other,  I am aware that some of the so-called bill are just one line amendments to existing laws.

Our lawmakers often forget that the legislature is the fulcrum of democracy as a representative government.  For there to be good governance in the country,  the lawmakers must be up and doing.  Suffice it to say that things will work better in this country if the legislators are alive to their responsibilities.

The attitude of most lawmakers to governance should give the electorates a cause for concern. The citizens participation  in the governance process is strategic if the syndrome of ghost lawmakers is to be laid to rest.

Across the land,  constituents  should be bold enough to critically review the performances  of their respective representatives and periodically interface with them. This way,  slothfulness will give way,  birthing a fresh spirit of hard work and responsibility.

Again, constituents should be aware that their power to recall their representatives is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Parliamentarians should be told that the task before them is constructive engagements with their colleagues to churn out good laws for governance of the country. As a result, no room exists whatsoever for idleness, as that translates easily to under representation of the people on whose mandate, the lawmaker seats in the hallowed chamber in the first place.

It is good the House leadership has introduced electronic voting in the conduct of the business of the House to ensure transparency.

But it is also imperative for the House to take it a notch higher. Apart from using the device for voting,  the House should also use it in tracting the attendance and participation of lawmakers in legislative activities.

These records when collated should be made available to the citizens,  who are their employers, to enable them know how to deal with the lawmakers,  when they become ghost workers.

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Point of Order…

It is that time of the year,  when members of the National Assembly embarks on “pilgrimage” to their respective constituency, to give account of their “ stewardship”.

In the next couple of weeks,  federal lawmakers across the country will hold town hall meetings where they will brief their constituents about their actives in Abuja and do some “ empowerment “ projects.

It is good that the electorates will have an opportunity to interface with their representatives.

But dear constituents,  as you attend that town hall meeting or constituency briefing with your “ honourable,” please do not take anything he or she tells you on face value.  Probe deep.  Ask your lawmaker critical questions.

Let them explain to you,  how they have been utilising the mandate you gave them.  Do not be content with collecting few  cups of rice, garri, motor cycle,  sewing machine etc from them, .

I know times are hard,  and those things will help to ameriolate your sufferings.  But you deserve more than that. And chances are that you will get much more than that if you lawmaker sits and do its or her job very well.

Most importantly,  find out if your lawmaker is a ghost worker.  If he or she is,  do not be afraid to exercise your power as the employer. There should be no free meal for any lawmaker.

Re: Chidoka,  Ikpeazu and Onitsha Port

Now, reasonable Ibos are talking.  Onitsha Port must work.  This is the threshold of any developmental approach. Onitsha Port should become functional, not this crazy agitation.  House of Representatives and Senate must ensure this Onitsha Port works.

Thank you Chidoka and Ikpeazu.

-Neil Trevon, facebook

If the Onitsha port works… all the traffic gridlocks experienced in apapa and wharf area of Lagos would be a thing of the past.-Chigozie Governator , Facebook

Nice reportage, this is my first time of reading your column. May your pen never run dry.

-Ikechukwu Nwigwe,  Spain

Re: Reps broke my heart

That was another good piece from you on Reps The Reps did not broke only your heart but the hearts of million Nigerians. Some times, I wonder why  most of our political (and unfortunately some spiritual) leaders finds it difficult to exbit simple characteristic traits such as honesty and sincerity. Because I know that one does not need to be a born again Christian to be a honest and sincere fellow.

Pastor Sunday Okorie, Yola