The Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Parliament) Moustapha Cisse Lo, has castigated the Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Yusuf Suleiman Lasun and other members of the regional legislature over their poor attendance during the just concluded First Ordinary Session of the Parliament.
Cisse Lo, who declared the session closed on Saturday, expressed dismay that Lasun, who is the First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament and leader of the Nigerian Delegation, could show so much lackadaisical attitude with his poor attendance and still wants to be paid his full allowance.
Lo ordered that the payment of the allowance to Lasun and all the others who failed to attend plenary be blocked.
A visibly angry Cisse Lo queried why Lasun would avoid proceedings of the parliament and get full payment, whereas some members who attended for a number of days did not receive full payment of allowance.
Cisse Lo said Lasun has commitments, yet decided to abandon his duty to oversee the proceedings of the ECOWAS Parliament, adding that he authorized a ‘no attendance no payment’ option in order to sanitize the system and also ensure proper attendance of proceedings of the parliament.
He threatened to report to President Muhammadu Buhari if any of the Members protested against the decision he took on the payment issue.
Cisse Lo said: “Lasun, who never came, is being given full payment. And he is never here. I blocked that payment.
“Yes, I lost my temper. I was out of myself. I gave authorisation because I want to have the list of attendance. I authorised it.”
The Speaker said further that “Lasun never came and he wants to get full payment. If he must be paid, everybody must be paid. It is not my money, but the community’s money.
“It is not acceptable. If you protest, I will write to President Buhari.”
At the time of filing this report, Lasun was said to have traveled to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj. A source close to him described the Speaker’s outburst as “playing to the gallery” adding that Lasun had taken permission to travel.
Reacting to the matter, one of the Nigerian Delegation of Members of ECOWAS Parliament, Biodun Olujimi, said Cisse Lo overreacted on the issue.
Olujimi said: “For me, that was too personal because the Parliament is not to attack individuals, especially if you are a leader, you must be able to manage issues behind closed doors. You don’t need to bring anything up on the floor of the House.”
Olujimi further said the Parliament was supposed to be a place where information is distilled and formulate policies, adding that the Parliament was not a place where petty, personal issues would be brought.
Olujimi added: “I am not in favour of anyone not attending. However, the Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives is a very busy person. He is put here so that he can oversee and can overlap once in a while.
“I remember that the last time he came, he was not allowed to sit. The second deputy speaker was asked to sit. I saw him; he took his book and walked away. If you treated him that way, were you going to expect him to come back?
“So, I believe the Speaker should be a lot more receptive to information and must be able to call people and talk to them and ask questions rather than come and vituperate on the floor of the Parliament,” she said.
However, a source in the ECOWAS Parliament told BusinessDay on condition of anonymity that the Nigerian lawmakers in the regional parliament are fond of keeping away from important sessions only to sign for their allowances. The source noted that this has “cost Nigeria dearly”.
Nigeria has the highest number of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the regional parliament (35) but they are hardly available during plenary, the source said.
