Last week was sad for members of the House of Representatives as they mourned their departed colleague, Isa DogonYaro, who passed away after a brief illness on 10 May.
In line with the rules of the House, legislative activities were suspended on Tuesday to honour the memory of Mr DogonYaro, who until his death represented Babura/Garki Federal Constituency of Jigawa State.
He was the second member of the 10th House to die since its inauguration on 13 June, 2023.
Despite this, the week was busy for the 360-member chamber.
Obasanjo and pro-parliamentary lawmakers
On Monday, lawmakers campaigning for the abandonment of the presidential system of government for the parliamentary system met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo as they solicit the support of key figures in the country.
The lawmakers, led by the Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda met with Mr Obasanjo in Abuja.
The military regime of Mr Obasanjo switched Nigeria from the paliamentary to the presidential system when it inaugurated the 1979 Constitution and Nigeria’s Second Republic on 1 October 1979.
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The former president refused to endorse the proposal of the lawmakers for a return to the system, and instead used the opportunity to present his “Afro democracy” concept to the lawmakers.
He told the lawmakers to remove the word “parliamentary” from whatever they are proposing.
“Remove parliamentary and all that. Once you start that, you have gotten it wrong. Once you do that, you are putting yourself in a fix because there are those that would say “We don’t want parliamentary,” the former president said.
However, Mr Obasanjo and the lawmakers had a point of convergence which is the need for a radical change to the existing structure.
‘Park the presidential jet and use commercial flights’
For over 10 months, the minority caucus in the House appears to have lost its voice and abandoned its responsibility as the opposition.
On Wednesday, Nigerians got a small spark from the opposition lawmakers when the minority leader, Kingsley Chinda, and the minority whip, Ali Isa, spoke on the recent breakdown of the aircraft in the presidential fleet.
While debating a motion on the need to investigate the “embarrassing” breakdown of the jets, the opposition lawmakers called for a probe and urged the president to consider using commercial flight.
“We love our president and others. Since an issue has been raised, I would advise that the president should suspend using the presidential craft if there is a need he could use a chartered or commercial flight,” Mr Isa said while laughing.
He added: “There is another option—that would help Nigerians because if the president could travel by road then Nigerians would have hope that our roads would be repaired.”
However, the presiding officer, Deputy Speaker Ben Kalu, turned the comments into a banter.
“So you want my president to use the road to Europe?” Mr Kalu asked as he made light of the comments.
But the minority leader refused to go the route of banter as he delivered his submission with a stern face and seriousness.
“Very sincerely. I have not seen anything wrong with a public office holder using public aircraft. The Prime Minister of UK uses British Airways. It is commercial. We should be thinking of how to resuscitate the Nigeria Air,” Mr Chinda said.
While the back and forth was ongoing, some lawmakers on the floor were cheering Messrs Chinda and Ali, while booing anyone with a contrary view.
This legislative drama raises this question: is the opposition finally waking up to its responsibilities?
Faulty microphones in chamber after N42bn renovations
On Thursday, the legislative session was delayed for about one hour as technicians struggled to fix the microphones in the chamber.
One would have expected after the renovation the of the chambers of the National Assembly that cost Nigerian tax payers N42 billion and lasted about two years, the facilities would be in good shape.
Deputy Speaker Ben Kalu had to apologise to his colleagues after the delay on Thursday.
Annual rent system and casualisation of labour — two motions that keep coming
During the week, the House deliberated on two motions on the floor of the House – ending the annual rent system in Abuja, the nation’s capital and the control of casualisation of workers.
These recurring motions have failed to address the problems.
For the annual rent system, the Housemandatedits Committee on FCT to collaborate with players in the real estate sector in the territory to work out a modality for monthly rent payments.
The committee will also review the real estate sector and recommend effective policies to regulate the activities of landlords.
This resolution was a sequel to a motion moved on Wednesday by Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo (PDP, Akwa-Ibom) during plenary. He said residents are finding it difficult to pay annual rents.
But there have been similar motions in the past. In the last 9th Assembly, Smart Adeyemi, a senator from Kogi, sponsored a bill to that effect but the bill died with the Assembly.
Similarly, the House reached a resolution to end the casualisation of workers in Nigeria.
The resolution was reached on Wednesday following a motion moved by Fuad Laguda (APC, Lagos).
In the last Assembly, Ayo Akinyelure (PDP-Ondo),sponsoreda bill titled: “A Bill for an Act to provide for the prohibition of casualisation in all forms of employment in the private and public sector in Nigeria and for related matters”.
A similarversionwas sponsored in the House in the last Assembly by Olawale Raji. These bills languished in the Assembly till its final adjournment in 2023.
In 2018, the House reached a resolution to probe the same casualisation of labour in Nigeria.
These inaction on these issues clearly points to the ineffectiveness of motions of the House.
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