Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, may be having a tough time deciding on the composition of the various House committees, Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, reports
Following a six-week break, the House of Representatives recently reconvened. Signs of underutilization pervaded all sections of the green chamber but the worst hit were the committee rooms where House Committee are supposed to hold their meetings.
Damp air oozed from the well-furnished meeting rooms due to lack of use while the furniture and equipment therein appear to be gathering dust. This is because the committees are not in place yet.
Expectedly, the Speaker reportedly came under pressure from his colleagues to name the chairmen of the standing committees of the House on resumption even as House sources claim Dogara himself is eager to get the headache that the composition of the committees has become.
According to some of the lawmakers who spoke to The Nation, the absence of the committees has made the lawmakers very idle. “And you must not forget the fact that many of us were corporate players and civil servants before coming to the national assembly.
As such, it is unusual for us to be this idle. Apart from the few plenary sessions we’ve had since we got here, what else have we been doing? My answer is nothing. Sincerely, it is as if all we have come to Abuja to do is to be signing the attendance register for plenary,” a legislator from Osun State told The Nation.
Many of the lawmakers exuded readiness to carry out their legislative functions as soon as possible, but decried the delay in the composition of the committees, which according to them, is preventing the lawmakers from having a taste of oversight duties sixteen weeks after they were inducted into the National Assembly.
“It is true we are not working. So, when the people accuse us of idlying away, I think we shouldn’t argue because the bulk of legislative duties are done through the committees. Since we don’t have those committees in place up till now, what then have we been doing?
But it is due to no fault of ours. It is the leadership of the house that should address the delay immediately so that the House can function optimally. And I think that should be done soon,” another lawmaker said.
Under pressure
The Nation gathered that there has been pressure on Dogara to announce the committees since the House reconvened. But it appears the Speaker may not have the list ready in spite of earlier promises to speedily come up with the composition.
While addressing his colleagues before the recess, Dogara could not hide his anxiety over the delay in getting the lawmakers active. According to him, “The 8th Assembly has had a few distractions, but it is time to get on to the job for which we were elected. Apart from reviewing existing laws, law reform involves introduction of new laws where necessary.”
The speaker stressed that: “The good news, however, is that the 8th House of Representatives is resolutely committed to carrying out all functions expected of us. It is to this end we must quickly set all machineries in motion in that direction,” Dogara said.
The Nation also learnt that some prominent House members had met the Speaker to express concern over the delay in constituting the committee. According to our source, “about two groups of lawmakers met the Speaker to urge him to expedite action on the composition of the committees.”
It was also gathered that both the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had approached the Speaker to find out why the committees are not in place yet.
“The parties are also anxious to see what the committees will look like. Also, some lawmakers who supported the Dogara, in his tough bid to emerge as Speaker, are also eager to be given juicy committee as compensation for their support.
All these people as well as other factors, within and outside the green chamber, are pressurizing the leadership of the House to promptly constitute the committees.
But sources there may be more to the delay than is known to many of the lawmakers. According to reliable sources, the Speaker is having a tough time balancing the various requests and expectations of the numerous caucuses in the House.
“Top on the list of reasons for the delay is that the Speaker is expected, by many of the lawmakers, House caucuses as well as party leaderships, to bend over backward and accommodate certain persons in the list of committee chairmen. It is not the committee list that is difficult to draw, it is the chairmanship of the committee that is difficult to decide.
Also, the desire of every lawmaker to serve in certain committee by all means is also creating serious problem. On many occasions, the House leadership had had to jettison committee compositions simply because some lawmakers got wind of where they were placed and approached the Speaker to reject such.
So, while Dogara is eager to reel out the committees, he is also careful to take care of all interest and maintain the relative peace currently being enjoyed in the hitherto restive chamber.
“To tell you the thruth, Mr. Speaker is eager to get the committee in place, but above all other things, he is careful about not doing anything that will truncate the peace we now have in the chamber. And if not properly handled, the committee chairmanship issue is capable of causing fresh crisis,” a lawmaker from Imo State explained.
Perhaps in response to the growing agitation for the composition of the committees, the leadership of the house gave out forms to all lawmakers to indicate their preferred committee. This development gave the indication that the list might be ready on or before the resumption of plenary.
Race for juicy committees
But sources privy to the collection and submission of the forms however said rather than help the Speaker’s dilemma, feedbacks from the forms further complicated his headache.
“Most of the people who returned their forms showed interest in a few “juicy” committee while numerous other committees had very few or nobody showing interest in them. This further created more problems for the House leadership.
The problem is now that there is no way the majority lawmakers will fit into a few lucrative committees while several other committees are left without membership. With over 80 committees to be constituted, returned forms indicated that lawmakers are more interested in about 20 of these committees.
Now there is need to prepare the ground for the reactions of those who will not get their desired committees as well as those who will not get the chairmanship they so much desire.
While committees like Rules/Business; Ethics and Privileges; Legislative Compliance; Civil Societies; Reform of Governmental Institutions; Public Petitions; and about sixty others, had little or no interest shown in them by the lawmakers, others such as Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and Petroleum Resources (Downstream) are the toasts of all lawmakers.
Others like Appropriation; Finance; Communications; Power; Works; Customs; NDDC; Electoral Matters; Gas; Aviation; Baking/Currency; House Services; Water Resources; Agriculture; Education; and Defence are also being highly craved by the lawmakers.
More committees coming?
In a bid to take care of some of the issues delaying the committees, The Nation learnt that the Selection committee, chaired by the Speaker himself, may be toying with the idea of increasing the number standing committees in the House of Representatives.
House sources said about six new committees may be added to the existing ones to increase the numbers of chairmanship slots. “This will in a way help the leadership to accommodate more interests in the appointment of committee chairmen whenever the committees are constituted,” another source added.
“As we speak, the Speaker had already approved a proposal to increase the number of the committees. There are less than ninety committees now but we may end up with about ninety five.
The increase is to accommodate more chairmanship aspirations and douse some suspicions amongst members concerning the composition of the committees. It is a very understanding move by the Speaker to preserve the peaceful co-existence of members of the House,” another lawmaker added.
