As part of the new agenda, the seventh House also promised to review its salaries, allowances and running costs partly due to the huge public outcry over the ‘jumbo pay’ they got in the last session

“My period of service as the Speaker of this hallowed Chamber will restore theHouse’ of Representatives as an institution where the will of the people is done.” These were the words of Rep. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal representing Tambuwal/Kebbe Federal constituency of Sokoto State on 6th June, 2011 shortly after his election as the 12th Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Tambuwal who has been in the House since 2003, had been deputy chief whip of the House under erstwhile Speaker, Dimeji Bankole.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had zoned the speakership to the South West geo-political zone where Rep. Mulikat Adeola-Akande from Oyo State was anointed by the party as its candidate. But this choice did not go down well with the lawmakers who rejected it.

Horse-trading, scheming and other forms of maneuvers by the two sides took centre-stage and the House became the centre of attraction for weeks.

Despite the menacing presence of chieftains of the PDP in the Green Chamber, majority of the party’s members teamed up with opposition parties’ members and elected the Sokoto born Barrister Tambuwal as Speaker of the House in violation of the PDP’s zoning arrangement and its endorsement of Mrs. Mulikat Adeola-Akande for the post.

Tambuwal garnered 252 votes in the protracted election process by open-secret ballot, while Mrs. Akande got 90 votes. Which meant that he did not only secure all of the 150 votes of the opposition parties’ members, but also 100 of the PDP’s 202 members who defied their party and voted for him.

Few weeks after his election, the Speaker in yet another unprecedented move, unveiled the Legislative Agenda-a 76-paragraph document which he presented to the Nigerian public.

In the agenda, Tambuwal said his leadership will review the internal processes of the House which will lead to the improvement of legislative processes and standards to achieve better and optimum results in law making.

This, he said, will fast-track the process of the passage of bills as many bills initiated in the past had been covered by dust in the file cabin even after committee chairmen had collected money to conduct public hearings. Committees will also be required to prepare and submit their work plan as well as periodic reports to the House.

More so, Tambuwal and his colleagues said they would improve on their oversight function in order to eliminate wastages, plug loopholes and ensure value for money in all federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

As part of the new agenda, the seventh House also promised to review or cut down their salaries, allowances and running costs partly due to the huge public outcry over the “jumbo pay” they got in the last session. The watchword in financial issues, according to Tambuwal will be “fiscal conservatism”.

Now it is three years and many are asking if the House has walked its talk. No doubt, the House has had its good, bad and ugly moments but in the last three years, the House has received a total of 169 bills, of which 46 passed second reading and 27 were subsequently passed into law. Six more bills have been laid on the table and are awaiting the action of the committee of the whole. In addition to the bills, about 700 motions on matters of urgent national importance were considered and resolutions passed on them and forwarded to the executive for implementation. another special session was summoned by Tambuwal’s leadership after bribery scandal rocked the ad hoc committee on subsidy led by Rep. Farouk Lawan. On that Friday, the House passed a vote of confidence in the Speaker and removed Lawan as chairman of the panel and ordered in-house investigation into the allegations.

Before then however, the House Committee on capital market led by Rep. Herman Hembe got entangled in another allegations of bribery with the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission Ms. Arunma Oteh. Tambuwal didn’t waste time in relieving the committee of the probe and set up a special ad hoc committee led by Rep. Ibrahim Tukur others.

Records made available to our correspondent shows that since May 2011, the president has assented to only one nonmoney bill which is the Anti-Gay law and Daily Trust gathered that at one of their recent executive session, Tambuwal was said to have lamented over this to his colleagues.

In marking his three years in office, the Speaker in a speech entitled “Nigeria’s Fierce Urgency of now”, enumerated some of the challenges facing the House.

He listed late budget presentation by the executive, and that “there have also been attempts to denigrate the National Assembly for our insistence on instilling sanity in the budgetary process.” of the legislature and a slap in the face of the principle of Separation of Powers. I urge all members of this Honourable House to recommit themselves to the defence of the integrity of the legislative process and resist the temptation to be part of this dangerous trend that will only succeed in bringing the legislature to ridicule.”

Commenting on Tambuwal’s leadership of the House in the last three years, House minority leader, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos) said Tambuwal’s leadership style has been examplary and that his qualities are unparalleled. “He has an uncanny ability to be at 100 places at the same time. He is a bridge builder per excellence,” he said.