National Assembly: Lawmakers’ habitual absenteeism worries Nigerians
... As stakeholders call for recall, sack of culprits
There are heightened concerns over the poor representation of Nigerians in the National Assembly by absentee lawmakers, particularly in the House of Representatives.
This is as the absence of such lawmakers at the plenary where important decisions such as passage of laws, resolutions on motions, adoption of reports are taken and Committees meetings where part of oversight function is performed, implied that the people whose mandate they are holding in trust are denied been part of such decisions that affect them either positively or negatively.
It has been reliably gathered that since the inauguration of the 9th Assembly, some members of the House of Representatives hardly attend plenary or Committees sittings for no good cause.
Notable amongst such lawmakers is the former Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara from Bauchi who according to many observers has not attended sittings since inauguration, Patrick Aisowieren (APC, Edo), Yakubu Barde (PDP, Kaduna), who hardly comes and Abdulyekeen Sadiq (APC, Kwara) whose absence would have been understood because of ill but it is said he goes about his other activities back home in Illorin.
The absence of lawmakers was recently confirmed by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila during an argument on the floor of the House when he cited the case of a PDP member who has not been attending plenary in the chamber since it was inaugurated on June 11, 2019.
Gbajabiamila had told the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu to read Section 68(1)(f), which prescribes that a member will lose their seat if they fail to attend at least one-third of the sittings by the House. The House is to sit at least 180 days in a year.
The Speaker had said: “Since you are saying ‘do the right thing,’ I want you to read Section 68(1)(f). I’m sure, Minority Leader, that you are aware of members of your party – one, in particular, I won’t mention names – who has not been on the floor of this House since we started. Should I declare the seat vacant? I know of others too, not just this one.”
Speaking to Businessday on the matter some stakeholders who expressed serious concerns over the attitude of absentees lawmakers called for their recall and sacking by their constituents and the House leadership respectively.
John Ayuba-gwantu, an Abuja based lawyer said the absentee members are denying their constituents full representation because there are a lot of things that they are supposed to be at the sitting and speak on behalf of their people.
Ayuba-gwantu argued that such lawmakers’ absence is affecting not just the people they are representing but the country as a whole and urged their constituents to recall their representatives who do not attend sittings and partake in legislative activities.
“The fault is not only on the part of the lawmakers because there is constitutional power. The people they’re representing can recall them if they discover that they are not representing them well. They are not representing themselves, they are representing the people but the people are not holding them accountable.
“I think that’s the reason why all these things are happening. If they were been held accountable they will live up to expectations. The people should also find out, journalists also need to speak up, do their findings and relate to people so that the people can take appropriate actions such as recall that I earlier mentioned”, he stated.
Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) noted that it is not proper for lawmakers to be absent at sittings except they are carrying out other legislative activities duly approved by the National Assembly.
He said: “I think it’s important that the National Assembly ensures that members are in plenary. If they are not there, they are in other legislative activities, maybe, it’s Committee work, whether it’s special assignment sent to the person to carry on behalf of the House of Representatives or the Senate so that there is no gap in terms of his or her representation.
“If the National Assembly is able to do that and then somebody is not really attending legislative activities, then the National Assembly should encourage the person based on the fact that there is compulsory number of days which he or she should sit”.
Ezenwa Nwagu, executive director of Partners for Electoral Reforms, said the absence of lawmakers at plenary or sittings shows irresponsibility and noncommitment to the job they are elected to do on behalf of their constituents and Nigeria as a country.
He explained that lawmakers are saddled with the responsibility of lawmaking, representation and oversight of the executive and when they fail in these responsibilities, the electorate should recall them while National leadership should use the appropriate internal mechanisms to call them to remove them.
However, a management staff of the National Assembly confided in Businessday that it is difficult to sanction erring lawmakers as most of them often come early and sign attendance and go back to their other businesses.
“See Mr. Journalist, I want to tell you that it will be difficult for lawmakers who don’t attend plenary or sittings generally to be punished. Do you know why? Some of them in that category usually come early and write their names and leave and you know the staff that handle attendance book can’t question them,” Nwagu said.