In a matter of three weeks, different individuals and groups have walked out on members of the National Assembly, calling their bluff.
First, it was Festus Keyamo, minister of state in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, who staged a walk out on a committee of the Senate over the controversial 774,000 ad-hoc jobs. Although the leadership of the bi-cameral legislature threatened fire and brimstone, Keyamo is reportedly going ahead with the programme.
A few days after Keyamo’s episode, Ambassador of Lebanon to Nigeria, Houssam Diab, walked out on the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs. Diab was summoned by the House Committee headed by Rep. Tolulope Akande-Shadipe, to respond to questions on the maltreatment of Nigerians in Lebanon, especially one Temitope Arowolo.
But as the hearing was about to commence, at about 10: 52am, the Lebanese envoy walked out of the room and shut the House’s hearing room 348 door, behind him.
The Chairman of the Committee, who was miffed by the development, said they were “shocked that the Ambassador will just get up and walk out on us”.
Last Thursday, the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) led by Pondei Kemerbrandikumo staged a walk out on the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC investigating the alleged financial malfeasance and other activities of the Commission.
What does this gale of staging a walk out of the National Assembly signify? Lack of confidence in the touted rubber stamp legislature; toothless bulldog of a legislature, or those they are investigating know their secrets that they lack the moral high-ground to bark at them?
Idayat Hassan, director, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), told BDSUNDAY said: “The MDAs have often alleged of NASS members always seeking bribes from them during the oversight or investigation processes. These allegations either real or imagined have not helped. This is also coupled with the impunity with which the actions of the MDAs are greeted by the executive arm of government, even if NASS can make proclamation, it doesn’t have the power to implement. There is a need for a shift or gradually the legitimacy of institutions will ebb away in Nigeria.”
In his opinion, Christian Okeke, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, noted that walking out on the National Assembly was not a new thing.
“Public office holders walking out on National Assembly probe committees or even failing to honour their invitations is not new in Nigeria. It has rather become a trend as well as interesting that it has now extended to diplomats in recent times.
“Obviously, many reasons account for this phenomenon. It could be as a result of discomfort expressed by an invited person to testify before cameras. It may also be on account of an alleged violation of fundamental human rights of the invited person in the process,” Okeke said.
According to him, “An invited person may feel that the frequency of the invitation had become intolerable that they do not allow him or her any more time to concentrate on the given assignment. Refusal to honour such NASS invitation may even bother on the integrity of the National Assembly, either on the account of itself or that of the constituent members of the probe committees.
“Let’s recall that the then Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation had sued the Senate and the House of Representatives as the first and second respondents respectively in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/346/2014 wherein they prayed the Federal High court in Abuja presided over by Justice Ahmed Mohammed to set aside the summons by the House of Representatives on the Minister to appear before it over allegations that about ten billion naira was spent on a private aircraft charter.”
The university don recalled that “Part of the reasons given by the plaintiffs was that the National Assembly did not get the approval of the President before inviting her, apart from the claim that the conditions precedent in line with Section 88 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria were breached in summoning the Minister.
The alleged constitutional breach was predicated on the failure to publish in the National Assembly journal and the gazette of the Federal Government the resolution directing the probe of the Minister. While the court upheld the fact that the House of Reps failed to comply with the constitutional provision and so quashed the invitation, it however upheld that the National Assembly has powers to summon any public officer.
It is his belief that some “public officers and other summoned persons often give reasons not to honour NASS invitations either to suit their interests or as a result of observed procedural breach.”
On the way forward, Okeke said: “First, it is important for public office holders to live above board. However, caution should be applied in the whole saga so as not to sacrifice oversight responsibilities on the altar of vendetta and pursuit of pecuniary incentives. More so, there is the need to draw a clear line on this matter of NASS oversight so that lawmakers do not usurp the duties of the judiciary by constituting itself into a court or becoming a judge in its own case.
“The allegation by the acting Managing Director (MD) of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei that the Chairman of the House Committee presiding over the investigative hearing, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, had been accused of fraud by the commission should not be swept under the carpet but should serve as a wake-up call for constitutional amendment in the interest of justice and equity.
“Besides, if a public officer chooses not to honour an invitation for investigation, he or she can be made to step aside by the executive while relevant agency of government takes over the probe and ensure that it drives it to a logical conclusion.”
