The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Lawmakers

  • Edo Assembly urges FG to revoke Benin-Lokoja contract 

    Edo Assembly urges FG to revoke Benin-Lokoja contract 

    Lawmakers in the Edo State House of Assembly has called on the Federal Government to revoke contract awarded for the dualisation of the Benin-Ekpoma-Lokoja highway.

    The road which is now in a deplorable condition was awarded to four construction firms

    Speaker of the assembly, Hon Adjoto Kabiru, made the call at Ekpoma, headquarters of Esan West local government area when he led other lawmakers on a protest inspection to the road.

    The Speaker decried the low pace of works on the roads by the contracting firms said the sore state of the road had hampered socio-economic development of the people of the state as well as Nigerians plying the road.

    Adjoto also summoned the contracting firms and the state Federal Controller of Works to appear before the assembly to explain the delay in the rehabilitation of the roads.

    He noted that the level of works done by the contracting firms was below the huge funds released to them by the federal government.

    According to him, “It is our views as an assembly that the contract awarded to Dantata and Sawoe, Mother Cat and Reynolds construction company (RCC) should be revoked. Honourable Raji Fashola is a man that we respect very much. He is doing wonderfully so well as a minister of the federal Republic of Nigeria but this Benin-Ekpoma-Auchi-Okpella road there is need to revisit the performance of the  contractors. They are not competent

    “We are dissatisfied with the federal controller of works and we have resolved that the contractors can no longer deceived us.

    “The present condition of the road was unacceptable to residents in the state who now travel through Ondo or Delta states to get to their destination. The protest on the road was to show solidarity and share in the pains experienced by travelers and motorists.

    “Our over sight functions have doubled. We are now together as a team. It is unacceptable for Edo residents to travel through Ondo State when coming from Edo North.

    “We are not satisfied with the pace of work and quality of jobs done. We are moving through that road. We know Edo people are suffering,” he said.

    Principal resident engineer in charge of the Ekpoma axis, Ishaku Mamri, said he was not in a better position to tell the lawmakers the alleged delay for the work.

    He said Dantata and Sawoe construction firm was mobilized to the Ekpoma axis of the road for palliative works to address the traffic challenges on the road.

  • Impeachment: Bayelsa Assembly passes confidence vote in Dickson

    Impeachment: Bayelsa Assembly passes confidence vote in Dickson

    Lawmakers in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, reconvened for a plenary, Tuesday, after their vacation, with a motion to pass a vote of confidence in Governor Seriake Dickson topping their deliberations.

    The lawmakers, who were worried by reported underground moves to impeach the governor, unanimously and expressly reinstated their support for the governor.

    Following the motion moved by Mr.Tonye Isenah, member representing Kolokuma/Opokuma Constituency I, the lawmakers took turns to highlight the giant strides of Dickson in education, health, security and infrastructure.

    Some of the lawmakers said Dickson was the best governor to have ruled the state adding that they would have supported him for a third term if the constitution had approved it.

    Isenah said the governor had transformed the educational sector of the state insisting that Dickson deserved a reward for good behaviour.

    After the passage of the confidence vote, Benson went down memory lane to recall the rot in the state before Dickson took over and how his administration had rewritten the story of Bayelsa.

    Specifically, he said Bayelsa was known for militancy, kidnapping and other forms of criminalities, but that Dickson’s steady focus on education and political will to tackle crimes had brought peace to the state.

    “If the state had been promoted the way Dickson has done, Bayelsa wouldn’t have been known for militancy and other criminalities. In this stage before, people were killing others. We couldn’t go to our places.

    “A man that has the political will to stop all of that, how can people be calling for his impeachment? I don’t know why all of this should come.

    “But I believe in what you lawmakers have said. This government has provided governance and leadership with a clear departure from those days of corruption. Ijaw means truth, so why can’t we say the truth”, he said.

    The speaker cautioned persons in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) calling for division and asked them to peacefully join other political parties or become independent candidates if they felt unsafe.

    Benson, however, said nobody including the governor was tied to the PDP adding that there is nothing sacred anywhere including the PDP.

    He advised the PDP to be wise in holding he state together instead of promoting division insisting that the governor could also have his way in other political platforms.

    He said: “No one can destabilise the state. Bayelsa as a state was 100 per cent PDP all these while. Before now, all members here were PDP, even those in opposition now. Our members were the one that made APC strong.

    “Our party should be wise. I am not speaking for the Governor. But I know that anyone not happy with PDP is free to go elsewhere now that we have over forty political parties. Nothing special anywhere”.

    He added: “The governor deserves commendation for all he has done since 2012, transforming the state. Education, Infrastructure. The state is now relatively peaceful. The governor has performed beyond imagination.

    “There is no plot for impeachment. You people have given me the trust to lead and that is what I am doing. Please, don’t divide the house. On my own, I will not deny member his or her benefits.

    “It is not my plan to look for avenue to run anyone down. My style is for us to live together. Thank you for your support. I pledge my continual loyalty to members to carry out the tasks before us”.

  • Lawmakers: “You be thief”

    Lawmakers: “You be thief”

    Professor Itse Sagay must be giving our lawmakers nightmare on their luxurious beds. He unveiled their pay package. Rather than rebut it with their own “factual” counterpunch, they asked Buhari to call him to order. They had wanted to browbeat the former law teacher and Senior Advocate of Nigeria by summoning him to the senate. The SAN was not fazed. He would and did not attend.

    If the lawmakers don’t have anything to do, of course they don’t, they should at least keep quiet. How can they explain receiving N29million a month as salary. In hardship allowance of N1.2 million, when they already have furniture allowance, utilities allowance, cars, air-conditioners, etc. They take about N1.2 million on newspapers a month. I am sure they read all the newspapers in the world from Bombay Times to New Orleans Picayune times everyday, hence they have no time to do proper law making. Or maybe with wardrobe allowance of about N700,000, they have Taylor time and Gucci or Luis Vuitton shoe time. After getting new cars, they will spend about N1.8 million a month asking the mechanic why a mud stain lingered on the left tyre. That is in spite of earning about N10 million a month to buy a car. Remember the House buys vehicles for them from a different budget. They can visit dealerships every month, and change cars every month. Well maybe, N10 million cannot buy their choice cars, so they wait for three months to buy the great SUV. In four years, if they want to buy the great SUV, they will buy 16 SUVs per term.

    If Fela were alive, he would chant, “you be robber! You be thief!”

  • Pugilists in the House

    Pugilists in the House

    •Lawmakers are to make laws for good governance

    In many a state assembly, brawling, the kind one expects to find only in a motor park or in a beer parlour in the seedy part of town, has supplanted debate and discussion and the search for common purpose as instruments of lawmaking.

    The Mace, the symbol of the authority of the legislative chamber — is turned into a missile.  The furniture is smashed into pieces, to be wielded as cudgels as lawmakers engage each other in fist fights or rush toward the nearest exit. When it is all over, it is as if a wrecking crew has been on assignment there.

    The rioting – there is no need to prettify it – the rioting that occurred last week on the floor of the Edo State House of Assembly is only the latest manifestation of the flagrant disregard of  parliamentary procedure and practice which elected representatives of  the people are enjoined to uphold.

    So unseemly was the spectacle in Benin City that  the usually reserved Benin monarch, Oba Ewuare II, condemned it in strong terms, describing it as a sign of “desperation for power,” and as an act of “political barbarism and hooliganism.”

    It is lamentable that Oba Ewuare II had to remind the lawmakers of the self-evident truth that what they should hold paramount at all times is the interest of the people, not the pecking order in the House nor their personal benefits.

    The Edo State melee was preceded by a slugfest on the floor of the usually quiescent Sokoto State House of Assembly. In Kogi State, an executive branch desperate to remove and replace the speaker with a more complaisant official has been blamed for the recent ugly incident in the state assembly.

    If these unedifying spectacles had arisen during debate on matters of overarching public importance or principle, or over party ideology, they would still be unacceptable. But more often than not, they stem from issues that have little to do with the public interest.

    The speaker is “not carrying them along” is a familiar complaint of our lawmakers, meaning that, in the distribution of “juicy” committee assignments, they have not been given what they consider their due.

    Delays in payment of allowances have also led to violent conflict. In states where civil servants earning subsistence wages often work unpaid for six months or longer, it is unfeeling indeed for over-compensated lawmakers to resort to rough tactics to press for their allowances. Where is the empathy? Where is their sense of sacrifice?

    Unseemly jockeying for position – careerism, to call it by its proper name – is often the root cause of violent conflict in the legislative houses. All too frequently, lawmakers jettison the rules of the game and contrive all kinds of formulas to advance their personal goals.

    This is not an environment in which common purpose can be pursued or achieved. It is emphatically not one in which legislators can enact laws for the good governance of the polity they claim to represent.

    Civilised discourse, respect for process and procedure, and commitment to the search for common purpose lie at the heart of democracy and lawmaking. Brute force, strong-arm tactics, or even the mere threat of force, have no place in an institution whose mandate is to make laws for the good governance of the polity.

    Society has a right not merely to expect but to demand good conduct and edifying example from its lawmakers. Those who cannot meet this threshold should go indulge their pugilistic skills elsewhere.

  • Olujimi: Ekiti lawmakers told to attack me

    •Senator’s political coup backfired, says Assembly

    Senate Deputy Minority Whip Abiodun Olujimi has said members of Ekiti State House of Assembly were under instruction to attack her at the August 12 non-elective national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja.

    Addressing reporters at the weekend, Mrs Olujimi described as “stupid and laughable” the request by the lawmakers that two of their colleagues believed to be loyal to her should write letters of apology and renounce their association with her.

    The senator representing Ekiti South faulted Governor Ayo Fayose’s sack of some political office holders for their alleged closeness and loyalty to some PDP governorship aspirants.

    Despite Fayose’s alleged opposition to her ambition, Mrs. Olujimi, who was Fayose’s deputy during his first term, said she was unstoppable.

    But the Chairman of House Committee on Information, Dr. Samuel Omotoso, described Mrs. Olujimi as “a betrayer…

    “Senator Olujimi’s recent attempt at removing Governor Fayose by midnight actions and claims on social media that she was in control of Ekiti State House of Assembly is a political coup that has backfired with serious political complications…’’

    “Then you go to the House of Assembly and say two of them are my loyalists and because of that you suspended them from the House. All the people who came to the PDP convention in Abuja, because you said they were supporting one person or the other, you relieved them of the appointments you gave them.

    “You chase them around the state. That is mindlessness, and this is happening within the same party we should all be galvanising for. Even honourable members from my constituency, not from any other, you ask them to insult me.

    “You even went as far as instructing them to physically attack me whenever they see me in the state or in Ado-Ekiti. It is all because they believe I have an ambition to become governor. And they believe I have much more clout than anybody who is coming out when I have not even started.”

    But the Chairman of House Committee on Information, Dr. Samuel Omotoso, described Mrs. Olujimi as “a betrayer whose consistently consistent disloyal behaviour knows no bounds as seen in her behavioural history smacking of perfidy”.

    Omotoso added: “One would have expected that at above 60 years of age, Senator Olujimi should be willing to rewrite her political history for posterity, a history full of tales of woes, weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    “Senator Olujimi’s recent attempt at removing Governor Fayose by midnight actions and claims on social media that she was in control of Ekiti State House of Assembly is a political coup that has backfired with serious political complications.

    “The Ekiti State House of Assembly of today is unlike her 2006 partners who sold their birth rights to Mrs. Olujimi for a pot of porridge and unholy predatory behaviour.

    “She is advised to note that the Ekiti State House of Assembly of today is full of tested and trusted new breed, people who are not cheap but on top of the issues and positively predictable.”

  • Salaries: Lawmakers are unarmed robbers – Obasanjo

    Salaries: Lawmakers are unarmed robbers – Obasanjo

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo Thursday in Ibadan described members of the National Assembly as a “bunch of unarmed robbers”, over their huge salaries and allowances.

    Obasanjo, who hit hard at the National lawmakers, said the current legislators are one of the highest paid lawmakers in the world, despite the fact that  an estimated 75 percent of Nigerians populace live in poverty.

    He added that the arm of government should be roundly condemned.

    The former president spoke at the book presentation of Prof. Mark Nwagwu entitled: “I am Kagara, I Weave the Sands of Sahara”.

    The event, which held at the University of Ibadan, had Obasanjo as the Chief Host while the former Minister of Education, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili chaired the occasion.

    Stressing that he is expecting another round of bashing from the federal lawmakers, the former President said he would continue to lambast them for constituting a huge percentage of the nation’s overhead cost.

    He lamented that the nation would hardly develop when about 90 percent of revenue was spent on overhead costs, rather than on capital expenses.

    Speaking on the ongoing impasse between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the 2009 agreement, Obasanjo, said government allowed itself to be stampeded into signing agreements without full consultation within government.

    However, he added that regardless of that, the government was bound to implement whatever agreement reached with workers’ unions.

    He said: “Government allows itself to be stampeded into signing agreement particularly when one group or the other withdraws their service and go on strike. After the agreement has been signed, without full consultation within government, and implementation becomes an issue.

    “But an agreement is an agreement whoever the agent is that signed that agreement on your behalf, you are bound by it. You may now have to renegotiate to have a new agreement but the agreement earlier signed remains an agreement.

    “The universities teachers go on strike, there is an agreement; doctors go on strike, there will be a special agreement. And when the universities teachers see that the agreement reached with the doctors is different from theirs, they again go on strike and this is bad for our economy.

    “The way we are going about spending all our revenue to pay overhead, we will not develop. And we will have ourselves to blame. Ninety percent of revenue is used to pay overhead, allowances, salaries and not much is left for capital development.

    “In a situation like that, we have to rethink.

    “It is even worse for the National Assembly. They will abuse me again but I will never stop talking about them. They are a bunch of unarmed robbers.”

    “They are one of the highest paid in the world where we have 75 percent of our people living in abject poverty. They will abuse me tomorrow and if they don’t, maybe they are sleeping. The behaviour and character of the National Assembly should be condemned and roundly condemned.”

    In her remarks at the occasion, the Chairperson of the event, Dr. Ezekwesili, remarked that the 289-page book, was a tool for Nigeria to examine the extent to which she had lost her values and culture.

    She decried the loss of community spirit, warning that Nigeria must never negotiate her values.

    According to her, the world was currently such that humanity tried to figure out what happened to morality.

    The book reviewer, Mr Nwachukwu Egbunike, in his remarks on the book noted the theme of feminism and how women navigate life intricacies towards achieving success in life.

    Egbunike also lauded the author’s ability to weave around different concepts in both the spirit and natural world.

    Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, University of Ibadan, Professor Olanike Adeyemo remarked that Nwagwu’s book was a veritable instrument to help the younger generation keep touch with culture.

    The event was attended by both academic and non-academic staff of the university who were on hand to celebrate the author and his wife, Helen.

     

     

     

  • Lawmakers endorse ITF’s building project

    Lawmakers endorse ITF’s building project

    The of House of Representatives has endorsed the building project of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) for training and other use.

    The project is 75 per cent completed.

    The building, they said, would boost ITF’s capabilities and capacities to train the nation’s workforce and meet its target.

    The Chairman, House Committee on Industry, Hon Abubakar Moriki, who led other members of the committee on a tour of the building in Lagos State during the week, extolled the initiative of the Joseph Ari-led ITF to ensure the building is completed  next year.

    Moriki promised to support the agency in its bid for the speedy completion of the  project whenever it needs their help.

    Ari said the seven-storey building, when completed, would not only serve the agency, but also provide accommodation to various companies as another means of revenue generation for  ITF.

    He said: “This building, when completed in 2018 will further boost our capabilities to equip more workers in the requisite knowledge needed to improve the skills and abilities of the labour force in the country.”

  • Speakers’ Conference chief lauds lawmakers

    The Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly has commended the National Assembly for the successful completion of the first step toward the amendment process of the 1999 Constitution.

    According to members of the conference, the depth of work done would deepen democracy and improve on the quality of governance at all levels in the country.

    In a statement by their Chairman, Ismaila Kamba, the speakers urged the National Assembly to quickly forward the items approved by both chambers to the states for expeditious deliberations and actions by the 36 states Houses of Assembly.

    Kamba, who doubles as the Kebbi State House of Assembly Speaker, said that since the National Assembly had at different stages of the debates and discussions on the amendment process involved the Conference of Speakers, it should not be difficult for the states’ legislature to vote on the issues and revert to the National Assembly.

    He praised the ingenuity and innovations introduced in the process by the National Assembly during the voting on the issues put forward by the Joint Committee on Constitution Amendment.

    Kamba said: “The Conference of Speakers is happy as the National Assembly separated the issues into different Bills, such that it is easy to vote on different issues in a clear manner.

    “We will enjoin all our colleagues to borrow a leaf from that in the voting on the amendment to the constitution. Same procedure can be used by speakers during voting on other thorny and sensitive issues that may come to our respective chambers in the future.

    “We are also happy that issues that can help improve governance at all levels, strengthen the judiciary, aid the anti-corruption war of the government, entrench separation of powers, develop the legislature at the state levels and improve on the performance of the local government authorities and many important issues have been taken care of in the constitution amendment.

    “With this constitution amendment, the National Assembly has prepared the ground for the emergence of a new Nigeria with a more solid democracy.

    “The Speakers are eager to lead other state legislatures to create a better country. The National Assembly should quickly send the amendment documents to us so that we can play our part.”

  • Fashola: my rift with lawmakers is for better Nigeria

    Fashola: my rift with lawmakers is for better Nigeria

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola said yesterday that his face-off with the National Assembly is to get better results for the country.

    He spoke with State House correspondents at the venue of the Presidential Quarterly Business Forum at the old Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.

    He said he was not fighting the lawmakers, but only had disagreement with them.

    Stressing that he has many friends among the lawmakers, he said his relationship with them would not stop the right thing from being done.

    He said: “There is no problem between me as an individual and the National Assembly. And let me make that very clear, many of the senators and honourable members are my personal friends, and so you don’t fight your friends.

    “But we have a disagreement. And the context of that disagreement, you will remember when President Muhammadu Buhari launched the economic recovery and growth plan, he had enormous support from the leadership of the National Assembly. So, it means that we all agree there is a problem.

    “There is also disagreement, which I don’t think should make us disagreeable about the best way to implement that plan and I think that is all there is to it.

    “It is perhaps possible that in the heat of the moment while trying to canvass different positions, we are misconstrued as fighting. But I am not fighting anybody. We have a disagreement; it shouldn’t make us disagreeable.”

    The minister added: “So, my responsibility is to continue to engage. Also even if I wasn’t a minister, I am a citizen and so the parliamentarians are also representing me. So, these are the issues and if I have been misunderstood, my intention was not to quarrel with anybody, but to see a better Nigeria, which I believe they also want to see,” he said.

    On the belief that the feud may delay the presentation of budget virement and the 2018 budget to the National Assembly, he said: “Again, I say the words that we use potentially redirects our attention from what the real issue is. I don’t think a feud is the right word to use. A disagreement yes; a very healthy disagreement…

    “I’m sure with the leadership of the National Assembly – Senate President, speaker of the House of Representatives, the principal officers – and the Acting President, we will resolve this in the ultimate interest of the Nigerian people,” Fashola said.

     

  • Niger  Speaker: Lawmakers not in support of council autonomy

    The Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Hon. Ahmed Marafa Guni, has said that legislators are not in support of full autonomy for local councils due to their lack of financial capacity, political will and management of managing its resources.

    But, the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) protested against the granting of full autonomy and the scrapping of the joint state/local government account in Minna.

    Guni said full autonomy to local government failed in Niger state when Governor Abubakar Sani Bello tried to experiment the process in 2016.

    Guni spoke when he received members of NUT who were on a peaceful rally to press home the management and funding of primary education. He said that nobody will support the total autonomy of local government.

    Guni added: “Using Niger state as a case study, the Executive Governor experimented by granting autonomy to the local GovernmentIn the state and they failed dismally. Some of the local government areas during this period owner their workers series of salaries which at the end, the state government had to intervene to rescue the system.”

    The Speaker said unless the state government takes over the payment of primary school teachers, most local government councils will fall in debt if granted full autonomy, “most local governments were worsely affected in Niger state during the few months of practising full autonomy and unless the state governments take over the payment of Teachers salaries, there is no way local government councils will be able to pay their teachers salaries.”

    He said àny institution that neglect primary education is heading for doom assuring the Unionists that their request wild be looked into especially when the constitution review is still in process.

    The Chairman of the Niger state chapter of the Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Ibrahim Umar who led the peaceful protest to the state House of Assembly expressed fear that if full autonomy is granted to local government councils, the school system will witness poor funding and total neglect.

    He said that the Union is not against local government autonomy but they are concerned that any attempt to handover primary school education through full autonomy to local governmeñt councils will amount to consigning primary education to the abyss of total collapse.

    Umar stated that the position of the Union is that the payment of salaries of primary school teachers be taken off by state governments stressing that the only way to pull the dwindling primary school system out of the woods is for the payment of salaries of primary school teachers to be handover to state governments.

    “We wish to reaffirm our position and call that the payment of salaries of primary school teachersn be taken over by state governments in order to prevent the education sub sector from imminent collapse. We cannot afford to continue to tie primary education, the fate of its teachers and the future of the pupils to local government councils.”

    The Chairman then appealed to the Speaker of the Niger state House of Assembly to facilitate the amendment of appropriate laws and make adequate budgetary allocations to the education sub-sector to enable the state government to redouble her efforts in the provision and management of primary education.