From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives started the year 2022 with high hopes. The leadership was optimistic that the year would afford it an opportunity to enact laws that would advance the country in the pursuit of its legislative agenda.
In the previous year, the House alongside the Senate had passed the Petroleum Industry Act ( PIA), which is considered a very big achievement. Therefore, basking in the euphoria of that achievement, the parliament had hoped to pass the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and conclude the constitution review exercise, which it started the previous year.
The speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, while welcoming lawmakers back from the 2021 Christmas break, had charged the lawmakers to redouble their efforts to enable the House achieve more in 2022 than it did in previous years.
Gbajabiamila had identified the passage of the Electoral Act, which was mired in controversy, in 2021, after the parliament introduced direct primary as the only mode of selecting candidates for elections, and the review of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as top priority for 2022.
According to him, “we have a lot still left to do in a very brief time. Principal amongst these priorities is the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill… A credible electoral law is what the people want. It is what the people deserve, and we must give to them. The Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill includes many other provisions that will serve our democracy well, and we cannot throw away the baby with the bathwater.
“Our current constitutional review effort is as crucial as the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill. Amending our nation’s constitution to address longstanding areas of disagreement and remove the vestiges of militarism from our democracy is one of the central commitments we made in the 9th House. It is a commitment we must meet or risk the harsh judgment of history. Therefore, we will prioritise action to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives.”
Expectedly, lawmakers as well as members of the public were
enthusiastic that 2022 will deliver more legislative dividends to them. While lawmakers were upbeat that the year will afford them an opportunity to do more work and clinch a return ticket to the parliament in the 2023 general elections, the citizens were optimistic that the electoral Act Amendment Bill and the constitution review will scale through and help address the lacunae in both the electoral law and the 1999 Constitution ( as amended).
Intervention
Also, the House in the course of the year intervened in the perennial crisis between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as well as held an education summit to chart a new course for tertiary education in the country.
Passage of electoral Act
Nevertheless, the House in conjunction with the Senate, succeeded in passing the electoral Act, which was stalled in the previous year. The passage of the new electoral law is considered a landmark achievement for the National Assembly, particularly the Green chamber, which made fundamental contributions to the Act, at the Committee of the Whole, during consideration of the whole.
This would be the first time the National Assembly would be altering the Electoral Act since 2004. Repeated attempt by the 8th House to amend the Electoral law was marred by politics.
Therefore, the passage of the Electoral Act which gave legal backing to the Electronic transmission of elections results among other far reaching changes, is no doubt one of the feats recorded by the parliament in the outgoing year.
However, the National Assembly in the passage of the new Electoral Act had inadvertently omitted the use of statutory delegates in the selection of party candidates in the 2023 polls. Statutory delegates usually consists of elected public officers, including members of the National Assembly, President, vice president, governors, state assembly members and some categories of appointed public officers..
The implication was that only ad-hoc delegates elected from the various congresses of the respective political parties will elect their candidates for the 2023. By the time the parliament realized the error, it was late, as President Muhammadu Buhari, who had already signed the new Electoral Act, refused to assent to subsequent amendments, including statutory delegates in the election of party candidates.
Consequently, for the first time in the country’s politics, since 1999, lawmakers effectively shut themselves, and other elected public officials, out of party primaries.
Dashed hopes on 2023 polls
Ironically, the Electoral Act was to become the death knell for many of the lawmakers, who either contested for the primary election to return to the House or for other offices, as they lost out in the internal politics of their respective political parties. In all, no fewer than 170 members lost their return ticket.
Gbajabiamila blamed the loss of the lawmakers at the primary on the delegates system of choosing political parties candidates. The speaker who bemoaned the loss of the defeat of the lawmakers at the primaries, said, “ I know and I am aware that many of our members did not lose their primaries because they were rejected by their constituents.
“Many of our members lost because of the process, the process which we foresaw in the House of Representatives. The delegate system which unfortunately is not what a delegate system is supposed to be.”
Exasperated by the outcome of the primary, Ben Igbakpa, who was one of those, whose return bid to the House in 2023, was scuttled by delegates during the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) primary, had charged the Green chamber to override President Buhari’s veto of a further amendment to Electoral Act to statutory delegates in party primaries.
The deputy minority leader, Toby Okechukwu, while contributing to Igbakpa’s motion, argued that the new electoral law was “weaponised” against lawmakers.
“It has been weaponised; where as a matter of fact, there was an aspiration to make the law a more perfect law to remove every ambiguity; and where there isn’t any material difference between the 2010 Act and that of 2022. And suddenly, majority of members, where it has been weaponised, have become victims,” Okechukwu posited.
Stalled constitution review
The House in its resolve to prioritize the alteration of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), received the report of its Special Committee on the Constitution Review, on February 17 and proceeded to vote on the proposals on March 1 and 2.
The House later approved the alteration of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to provide for financial and administrative autonomy for local government areas, abrogation of states/ local government joint account. It also voted in favour of moving electricity generation and distribution, airports, railways and prisons from the exclusive to concurrent list amongst others.
Prior to the submission of the report on the Constitution Review to the House, the chairman of the Special Constitution Review Committee, and deputy speaker, Idris Wase, and his Senate counterpart, Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, had held a summit with speakers of the states Houses of Assembly to galvanize support for the constitution review process.
Regardless, the state assemblies have dashed the hopes of the House and by extension the National Assembly, getting the Constitution review completed in 2022, as the exercise has been stalled in the states. Recently, Gbajabiamila expressed doubt that the constitution alteration would be completed before the expiration of the ninth assembly.
Inconclusive probes
Like in previous years, the House of Representatives embarked on several probes in the outgoing year. The probes were essentially aimed at getting reprieve for citizens and enhancing government business.
The major probes embarked by the House, in the course of the year, include investigation into abandoned government property, duplication of functions by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), state of petroleum refineries, fuel subsidy, daily Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) consumption and importation of dirty fuel. The Green chamber, in the outgoing year, also resolved to probe MDAs over N600bn extra- budgetary expenditure, incessant collapse of the national grid, $6.479billion debt owed the government by oil and gas companies amongst others.
However, most of the probes are yet to be concluded months after the respective standing and Ad-hoc Committee saddled with the responsibility commenced their assignment.
No doubt, 2022 has been an eventful year in the House even though it is dashed hopes for both the representatives and their constituents as most of their aspirations for the outgoing year did not crystalize.