Herculean tasks await members

 

Barring last minute changes, members of the House of Representatives are expected to resume for the third legislative year in the Eighth Assembly by Tuesday, 4th July, 2017. Of course, the House recorded a major feat with the introduction of 1,064 bills (at First reading), out of these proposed bills, 50 were initiated by the Executive, 21 transmitted by the Senate for concurrence, over 500 motions were sent to the House for consideration while 993 were classified as private member bills. As at the last day of the 181 statutory legislative sittings stipulated by the 1999 Constitutions (as amended), 126 bills

scaled through third reading on the floor of the House. According to the data reeled out by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, 27 of these bills have so far been assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo.

Without any much ado, the House on resumption is expected to face herculean task of final passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, Host Community, legislations relevant to Anti-Graft policy, among others.

The Lower Chamber is also expected to step up its activities on oversight functions of federal ministries, departments and agencies

(MDAs) as provided by the Constitution. I recall that the bill on PIB was referred the 21 member Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Hon. Ado Doguwa. Other members of the Ad-hoc Committee are: Victor Nwokolo (deputy chairman and chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream); Joseph Akinlaja (Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources – Downstream); Frederick Agbedi; Kehinde Odeleye; Ahmed Safana and Musa Adar.

Others include: Blessing Nsiegbe; Mohammed Nur Sheriff; Olajide Olatubosun; Pwajok Gyang; Shehu Garba; Johnson Oghuma; Henry Nwawuba;

Nnenna Elendu Ukeje; Talatu Solomon; Anayo Nnebe; Sunday Karimi; Lawal Abubakar; Ossai Nchola Ossai and Emmanuel Orker-Jev.

As highlighted in one of the previous articles, the House has to be cautious in managing some contentious issue that would further erode

public confidence especially on the issues of budget and Executive/Legislature relationship. I believe the leadership of the House should get its members to eschew any public comment that could

trigger acrimony within the polity.

Without mincing words, the House must ensure that Nigerians get value for money in the course of implementing the N7.441 trillion budget

which was passed signed into law on the 12th June, 2017 by the Acting President.

In getting it right, the House and Senate should not rest on their oasis until the bill for the establishment of National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO). The committee is chaired by Hon. Timothy Golu has done a lot of work to get the NABRO functional over the past two years of steering the affairs of the office. Of course, the

analysis done by NABRO will help in fixing most of the budgeting challenges and ensure equity and justice in the spread of projects across the country. It will also reduce usual face-off between the

Executive and the Legislature when it comes to budget matters. Going through the previous works done by NABRO, every Nigerian will be able

to know the projects based on geopolitical zones and state coverage at a glance. This I consider as a major feat that the House and National Assembly must dispatch with within a couple of days into the third legislative year.

At the last sitting held on Thursday, 15th June, 2017, the House observed that the bill should provide for the objective, timely and non-partisan analysis needed for economic and budget decision and for

other related matters passed by the National Assembly.

The lawmakers further observed that the Legal Services Directorate of the National Assembly, in the course of cleaning the bill, discovered

some issues that needed to either be amended or introduced to give NABRO the required impetus as a statutory body.

They also expressed desire to rescind earlier resolution on clause 13(1) and also introduce clauses 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 as well

as re-number clause 16 and 17 of the bill which was passed earlier.

For taking such steps, it is certain that National Assembly will be able to provide robust platform for budgeting and financial matters.

Likewise, the House is expected to conduct certain investigative public hearings into the motion on the “Need to protect Nigerians from harmful effects of Fanta and Sprite Beverages produced by Nigerian

Bottling Company”, which was assigned to the Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila to probe.