GETTING IT TOGETHER AT LAST
The composition and spread of the House of Representatives committees enhance national unity, reckons David Augustine
Since the advent of the All Progressives Congress’ government at the centre, the issue of national spread in appointments has been a source of concern to many Nigerians, who feel that government appointments have tilted in favour of a section of the country. It was against such background that the announcement of the composition of various committees in the National Assembly was awaited with baited breath.
The release of list of chairmen and deputies of standing committees of the House of Representatives by Speaker Yakubu Dogara was received with so much joy and appreciation by Nigerians, because the composition took care of the fears in certain sections of the country, where doubt persists that they would be disadvantaged due to the political configuration in the House, with APC in a clear majority. But Dogara’s appointments took care of these fears, bringing balance and equity to the parties and the different sections of the country.
In his wisdom, Rt.Hon. Dogara increased the number of House committees to 96, with his ruling APC having 48 slots, and Peoples Democratic Party, 45, while four committee chairmen were left for smaller parties such as All Progressives Grand Alliance, Social Democratic Party, etc.
In increasing the number of committees, the Speaker said he was guided by the desire to ensure that effective legislative oversight is carried out, without increasing the cost of achieving such result: “It is necessary to point out that the splitting of committees has not resulted in increased cost of running the house. (The) committee clerks and other staff (of the committees) are sourced from the existing pool of staff (that are) paid salaries and allowances already by the National Assembly. Committee members are already paid salaries also by the National Assembly. No person gets an increased remuneration by virtue of appointment as a committee member or chairman. The National Assembly budget has not been increased as a result”, Speaker Dogara had said at the inauguration of the committees.
While acknowledging the right to constructive criticisms by some commentators on the number of committees, the Speaker said experience, gained from the operation of committees since 1999, shows that some committees’ functions and mandates are very wide indeed and cannot be effectively supervised and ‘oversighted’ by a single committee.
For instance, the House split the committee on Education into two, namely: Basic Education and Services and Tertiary Education and Services. The old committee on Education had a mandate to oversight the budget and policy issues of the following institutions: 104 Unity Schools, 22 Federal Colleges of Education, 36 Federal Universities and 24 Federal Polytechnics.
In addition, it had responsibility also for the ministry itself and about 25 other government agencies and all aspects of education in Nigeria.
There is no way a single committee can adequately oversight all these agencies with House members also attending to other issues in plenary sessions, like lawmaking and allied representational responsibilities.
It is also worthy of note there are two schools of thought with respect to the method of executing legislative functions. One school of thought employs the strategy of fewer standing committees, with many sub committees to deal with relevant subject matters. For instance, United States Congress has about 22 standing and select committees but about 100 sub committees. The second school of thought employs the method of delineating various subject matters carefully and constituting separate committees to handle them.
Dogara said that the 8th Assembly embraced the second option because of practical experience of running committees since 1999. The Standing Orders of the House enjoin special and standing committees to create sub committees as may be required and to appoint sub-committee chairmen, in consultation with the Speaker.
However, in practice, this had led to friction between chairmen of substantive committees and chairmen of sub-committees. So, in order to avoid gridlock, even though the committees are still expected to have sub committees, Speaker Dogara created substantive committees where necessary in order to devote more attention to issues of particular and priority concern to the House.
In terms of national spread, Dogara has ensured that even the South East that is obviously politically disadvantaged got their due with 16 positions, second only to North West with 18 positions. To further confirm his patriotism and sense of service before self, the least number of committees went to North-East where he is from: the zone got eight committee chairmen and eight deputies.
Surprisingly, this noble act of the Speaker has generated a lot of tension in the house with some members protesting the equitable distribution of committees, accusing the speaker of allocating more committee slots to opposition parties than he should have. Some even went on to accuse him of allocating what they termed ‘juicy’ committees to the PDP.
One wonders if these complaints are against the tradition of allowing lawmakers from oil-producing states to run petroleum-related committees or those from the north for agrobased committees (a parlaimentary convention which Dogara wisely honoured) by retaining committees such as that of Agriculture, Water Resources in the North while those of Petroleum and Gas Resources were retained in the South as obtainable in the previous assemblies.
It is understandable, but unfortunate that we are still talking about ‘juicy’ committees, which is an obvious euphemism for corruption, in this era of change. Hiding under the guise of party affiliation, these members, for obvious selfish motives, have continued to embarrass themselves, their party and the president, who believe that the only thing that counts now in Nigeria is corruption-free service delivery.
The world over, committees of the parliament are supposed to be for proper oversight functions. To that effect, the main considerations are usually the ability of members to function properly in their committees and the quality of oversight by the committees. The house ought to function as a whole and not be allowed to continue to be polarised along party lines. The deputy chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon. Jonathan Gaza recognises this fact when he answered a reporter’s question thus: “Time has been wasted on several things … when you walk into that chamber, it’s not about parties anymore. We swore allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not to our respective parties. It is therefore about the progress of Nigeria. The wheel of governance is spinning and Nigeria would begin its upward move.”
The same sentiments run deep in the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki’s speech at the inauguration of the House of Representatives Committees, when he said: “To all Nigerians I say this. As your representatives, we owe you not only our hard work, but our judgment. This National Assembly will not be a parliament of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests we maintain as agents and advocates against one another in perpetual conflict.
Rather, the 8th National Assembly will remain a united, deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole nation, not local prejudices or affiliations but working for the public good with collective purpose.”
The Speaker, himself, guided by his belief that the house should remain one, insists that no ‘juicy’ considerations were taken into cognisance when committees were set up. He maintained that the only consideration was service to Nigeria.
“Let me use this opportunity to restate that there is nothing like juicy committee or non-juicy committee. I personally do not understand what is meant by that. If it means opportunity to contribute, we can assure you that every member of a committee would enjoy ample and equal opportunity. Every committee of the House is important and is designed to handle specific functions for the House and on behalf of the Nigerian people who elected us,” the Speaker said at the inauguration.