The House of Representatives last week began their final journey in
the seventh session in a tepid fashion. Though the Speaker, Hon. Aminu
Tambuwal, tried to dress the occasion in a warm garb, the absence of
most members of the chamber clearly told the message.
About 100 of the the 360 member-House were not present at the
Wednesday plenary which was designed to mark off the new legislative
year. The event would have taken place on Tuesday, the day the chamber
reconvened after a two-week break but was shifted in solidarity with the
Senate over the death of one of its members.
The scanty attendance caused unusual attention to be turned on the the chamber. Several unanswered questions were raised .
The Speaker, perhaps, reading the mind of many, tried to offer reason
for the absence of most lawmakers. He hinged it on the fact that this
was a political season. All through the session, he drew the focus of
most people away from the vacant seats with his unending jokes.
But what charged the atmosphere most was his speech, which was meant
to welcome the lawmakers back from their break. The speech captured some
happenings in the country and the path that he would want the
legislators to ply between now and May 2015.
“It is my honour and pleasure to welcome us all back from the short
but hopefully refreshing recess, which marked the end of the third
session of this Seventh Assembly. I hope the recess afforded you some
much needed rest. I am conscious of the fact, as I have no doubt you
all are, that this final year of our four year tenure is an election
year.
“Consequently, the propensity for our members to prioritise
politicking over our legislative mandate may be pretty high. It is in
the light of this that I urge all of us to remind ourselves of the fact
that Nigerians will expect full commitment with due diligence from us
during the residue of our four-year mandate. Honorable colleagues,
having come this far, we cannot afford to abuse the confidence so overwhelmingly reposed in us by our people,” he declared.
According to him, “There remains yet a lot of ground for us to
cover. Among the several Bills at various stages of consideration, we
already have a pact with Nigerians to conclude work on some critical
bills including, but not limited to: The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB);
Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill and Constitution Review. I am satisfied
with the progression of these bills and I hereby restate our commitment
to deliver on our promise to Nigerians on these vital bills.”
He got a deafening applause for the submissions . The ovation emboldened him to touch on other areas .
“Honorable colleagues, on Saturday 21st June 2014, the Independent
National Electoral Commission conducted the governorship election in
Ekiti State, South West Nigeria. Reports at our disposal indicate that
there was remarkable improvement in the conduct of that election
compared to other elections in the recent past. We commend INEC for
their improved performance and urge them to continue along this path of
progressive improvement going forward.
“ Worthy of note also is the new and much welcome culture and spirit
of political contest exhibited by the contestants in the Ekiti
election. Moments after INEC returned the winner at that election, the
first runner-up candidate and incumbent Governor of Ekiti State, Dr.
Kayode Fayemi publicly congratulated the winner, Mr. Ayo Fayose and
promised to ensure a smooth transition. Dr. Fayemi’s gracious concession
was followed shortly thereafter by that of the second runners up, our
own Hon. Bamidele Opeyemi.
“We highly commend this spirit of sportsmanship, which for long has
been a scarce commodity in our polity. I am confident that when the
history of political contests in Nigeria is written, these great
Nigerians will be allotted a prominent line.
“Honorable colleagues, reports reaching us from the North East of
Nigeria indicate that the wanton destruction of innocent lives and
valuable property by the Boko Haram insurgents has not abated. And
sadly, our Chibok girls are still in captivity. May I once again commend
our armed forces and security agencies for their unwavering
effort, determination and sacrifice in tackling this unfortunate
relentless assault on Nigeria’s peace and security. The fact remains,
however, that we as a people and a government still need to do so much
more to contain this menace and restore to our people the peace and
peace of mind that have been so rudely snatched away from them,”
Tambuwal stressed.
He added: “It is my view that now is the time to establish a Counter
Terrorism Special Forces Unit as well as a National Counter Terrorism
Centre for the Armed Forces. This should be accompanied by mass
recruitment of personnel as well as the redeployment of existing
officers and men to this special unit so that they can immediately
benefit from the professionalism and expertise being offered by the
international community by way of training. It will also be necessary to
formally bring on board the Youth Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) in
the proposed counter terrorism special training programme. When fully
operational, this special forces unit shall be maintained in a state of
permanent readiness to respond to terrorist incidents anywhere in
Nigeria. These special forces will be exposed to continuous training to
maintain their skill and readiness levels.
“The challenge of terrorism is real in our nation and we must adopt
decisive and functional strategies to meet this challenge. This calls
for a serious reappraisal of our existing security apparatus and
operational strategies. We certainly cannot expect to rely on the
security strategies of last century to effectively deal with the
security challenges of today.”
The Speaker continued: “Honorable colleagues, for much of the last
15 years of democracy practice in the country, the Nigerian military has
conducted itself most professionally by limiting itself to its
Constitutional role. Recent events whereby the political leadership
appears to be gradually pulling the military into partisan political
roles are most worrisome. When the military becomes the preferred agency
for clamping down on the media, for the grounding of aircraft and
closure of airports and for forcibly restricting the freedoms of
citizens, including elected officials, through arrests, detention and
false imprisonment, then there is need for us to return to the drawing
board of democratic governance.
“It is important for those of us holding public office in trust
for the people to be reminded that employing security reasons and
security reports as justification for each and every governance
infraction is not an acceptable practice in a democracy. On our part as a
legislature, we would be betraying the hallowed doctrine of separation
of powers and abdicating our constitutional duty of checks and balances
if we decide to look the other way when tyranny rears its ugly head in
our nation.”
The Speaker’s speech elicited a long drawn applause from members.
However, beyond the thumb up , the concern of many is the shape the
House will command in the next one year. The current low attendance,
predictably, will worsen in months to come. Several members are more
keen about playing the politics that can help them pick the tickets of
their parties than attending plenary sessions.
Tambuwal may not like the situation but there is little he can do to
alter it . The implication of this is that the public can only expect
little or nothing from the chamber in the next legislative year. The
fate of sensitive bills like the PIB may continue to hang in the
balance .
