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Tag: Speaker of the House of Representatives

  • We discussed national issues with President Buhari – Dogara

    We discussed national issues with President Buhari – Dogara

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has said that himself, president of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and leader of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, discussed national issues when they visited President Muhammadu Buhari in London  Wednesday evening.

    Dogara in a tweet via his verified official twitter handle @YakubDogara on said they discussed national issues with the President in the United Kingdom.

    The Speaker, according to a statement by his Special Adviser Media & Public Affairs Turaki Hassan further said “President Buhari is as fit as a fiddle and cracked jokes in his usual manner.

    “President is as fit as a fiddle, “after burning national issues, it was all PMB’s vintage humorous jokes. I’m so elated he is as fit as a fiddle.”

    Recall that the leadership of the National Assembly’s visit to the President is sequel to an agreement reached between the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

  • Osinbajo, Saraki, Dogara meet in Aso Rock

    Osinbajo, Saraki, Dogara meet in Aso Rock

    The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday met behind closed doors with the leadership of the National Assembly at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    At the meeting were the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.

    The duo had held similar meeting with Osinbajo on Tuesday. 

    Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Saraki said that the Thursday meeting was centered on Nigeria’s troops deployed in The Gambia. 

    “The Acting President was briefing us on our trip to The Gambia and what the situation is. He told us that the Navy and the Air Force will be coming back and that it is likely some troops will be left behind,” he stated. 

    He had disclosed that the Tuesday’s meeting had discussed the state of the economy and the 2017 Appropriation Bill currently before the National Assembly. 

  • NASS presiding officers got no accommodation money from FCTA – Dogara

    NASS presiding officers got no accommodation money from FCTA – Dogara

    Presiding Officers of the National Assembly did not receive any money for accommodation from the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara has said.

    In a statement by his Special Adviser Media & Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan, reacting to an online publication on the issue, Dogara said the story should be discountenanced unless evidence was produced.

    The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a story published by an online media platform, Sahara Reporters, where it was alleged, without any shred of evidence as always that presiding officers of the National Assembly including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, collected money from the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for rent of their official residences.

    “The report, which was credited to a group known as Citizen Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN), deliberately set out to misrepresent and distort facts with the aim of blackmailing the persons of the presiding officers and the Legislature as an institution.

    “Presiding officers of the National Assembly are entitled to official accommodation which is provided for by the FCDA as host of the National Assembly. The same is applicable to the President, Vice President and the Chief Justice of Nigeria because their offices were not covered by the monetisation policy. Consequently, no National Assembly presiding officer receives any money from any other source for accommodation or rent.

    “The FCDA is solely responsible for providing official accommodation for presiding officers of the National Assembly and how it goes about it is entirely its business and not that of any presiding officer. It’s callous, wicked and evil for any news medium to seek to perpetuate the mendacity that National Assembly Presiding officers collected money from FCDA without any form of evidence whatsoever.

    “The public should discountenance the story in its entirety unless of course the so called Sahara Reporters put out evidence of the trace of any such funds to the Presiding officers.

    “We challenge those undertakers and merchants of lies for filthy lucre to tell the Public which countries of the world allow presiding officers of their Parliament to live in their personal houses.

    “Certain officers of state were excluded from monetisation policy because of the nature of offices they hold that involves hosting certain level of official guests and other sundry activities.  Should Nigeria’s case be different?”

  • Buhari to join Saraki, Dogara for national prayers

    Buhari to join Saraki, Dogara for national prayers

    President Muhammadu Buhari is to attend the 7th edition of the National  Prayer Breakfast organized by the National Assembly, it emerged Thursday.

    Buhari, who is to join the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers and lawmakers are expected to seek divine intervention for the nation’s challenges.

    The prayers, put together by Christian Legislators in the National Assembly under the auspices of Christian Legislators Forum (CLF) said the seventh edition of the prayers became necessary due to the socio-economic and political challenges the country is currently going through.

    President of the group, Sen. Barnabas Gemade said it was in view of the challenges that the theme of this edition was tagged ‘Tree and Its Fruits: Is Yours a Blessing or a Curse to Nigeria’ was chosen.

    According to Gemade, the event Thursday 27th October 2016 at the International Conference Center (ICC) Abuja would have legislators and other policy makers in the Executive branch of government as well as members of the Judiciary in attendance.

    “It is a non-denominational gathering of Christians to honour and praise God for his graces the nation and seek his face for the challenges facing it.

    “The purpose of the gathering according to its organizers is to build bridges of unity and to engender harmony and progress in the polity.

    “In a chaotic world like ours bedeviled with various challenges notably crisis situations, hard struggles and sufferings, we need God to usher us into a new Beginning.

    “This prayer would afford us an opportunity that reminds all persons that no matter how much responsibility we have or how much power we think we hold, we are imperfect vehicles.

    “We enjoin all patriotic Nigerians to join us to pray  God of creation to direct our nation as one where peace and justice reigns,” he said.

  • Dogara, others seek reform of budget process

    Dogara, others seek reform of budget process

    Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has said the process of preparing the budget must undergo a reform to make the budget  more effective and impactful on the lives of the Nigerian people.

    The Speaker, who spoke at a colloquium in Abuja on Monday regretted that  since 1999 when Nigeria returned to democratic rule, national budgets have failed to yield any satisfactory result to the people.

     

    The colloquium was organised by OrderPaper.ng.

    Saying that there is an urgent need for budget reform in Nigeria, Dogara noted that any realistic, credible and lasting budget reform process will involve, among others, a review of the legal framework to ensure that the annual budget is submitted on time.

    He said: “This will lead to amendment of S.81(1) CFRN, which gives the President authority to present the estimates of revenue and expenditure ‘at any time’ within a financial year.

    “The imperative is of necessity to ensure that the Budget is passed on time, before the commencement of the next financial year. This may, if necessary, require that a budget time frame be included in the Constitution to bind both The Executive and Legislature.

    “A clear development plan with broad national consensus should be put in place that deals with short, medium and long term plans of the nation.

    “We must ensure that yearly budgets follow the development plans as much as possible, except emergencies arise. MTEF should be detailed enough to contain major projects contemplated in a three year period with approximate costings.

    “Projects that are admitted to the National Budget are not properly thought through and based on actual need with relevant spread to reflect federal character of Nigeria.

     

    “This entails that project selection process must be more transparent, need based and technically driven with justification. Discretionary and whimsical selection of projects must be downplayed.

    “That the Technical capacity of both the bureaucracy and Members of both the Executive and legislative branch on budget matters is deliberately beefed up. We must as a legislature ensure during this session that the National Assembly Budget and Research Office, Bill (NABRO) is finally passed and signing into Law, to provide timely and accurate financial and economic information to the Legislature.

    “There should be extensive stakeholder consultation at the executive level during preparation of the Budget.

    “There must be a robust Pre-budget interface between the Executive and Legislature, to reduce areas of friction during the Appropriation process. Indeed the National Assembly should be consulted on issues of project selection.

     

    “In any case, even though there is both constitutional and practical need and imperative for the National Assembly to work in a cooperative manner with the Executive on Budgeting matters, nevertheless, it cannot give up its constitutionally assigned responsibilities in the budget process in the guise of seeking cooperation with the Executive branch. The watchword is cooperation not abdication.

    “Clear budgetary objectives and government targets to be achieved in the Budget should be clearly stated.

     

    “Government must set out clear objectives and targets it intends to achieve during the budget year, which should be widely disseminated to all stakeholders and the Nigerian people.

    “Reform of the process of the passage of the Appropriation Act in the National Assembly that encourages more openness and transparency especially at the Committee levels. The plenary of both House should be more involved in the Schedule to the Appropriation Act.

    “Subjecting budget defense exercise to stakeholder involvement in a form of public hearing. Subjecting the annual budget to public scrutiny at National Assembly will give stakeholders opportunity to make their inputs and challenge incorrect assumptions in the Budget. This process will involve the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other professional bodies. We need to institutionalise this mechanism.

    “Amendment of Section 82 of the Constitution to reduce the time the previous years budget will continue to run in the event that the Appropriation Act is not passed at the beginning of the Financial year from 6 months to 3 months as this distorts the Budget process.

    “A critical look should be taken at the operation of Financial Year as defined in S. 318 of the Constitution. A situation where an approved budget is not allowed to operate for 12 months is constitutionally unacceptable.

     

    “This is the main reason for failure of budget implementation every year and the cause of abandoned projects that litter the Nigerian landscape. When projects are not completed, the nation is terribly shortchanged as the money and effort invested in it is lost. In this regard, we must institute a compulsory mechanism that rolls over major projects that is not completed in one budget year into the following years budget.

     

    “The current practice of not including on-going projects in the following year’s budget is a huge waste of resources.

    “I wish to draw attention to the existence of the problem of lack of full disclosure of the appropriate size of the National budget and the actual revenue and expenditure of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

     

    “It is recommended that the Executive should look into the possibility of having just one National Budget that captures the revenues and expenditure of all MDAs, such as NNPC, CBN and other revenue generating government agencies.  This should be included in the yearly Appropriation Bill.

     

    “I must commend Mr President for formally sending the Budget of these Agencies to the National Assembly this year. The budget of these agencies should not just be an ‘attachment’ to the Appropriation Act but an integral part of the National Budget”.

    While discussing the subject,  Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, John Enoh regretted that too much energy was wasted on who owns the budget between the executive and the legislature.

    He said it was more important to concentrate on how to translate the budget into a tool for development.

    Enoh also backed the passage of the detail of the budget on the floor, saying too much powers was given to the Appropriation Committees, “It is important to confront this, because what is coming out of the budget controversy even  embarrasses  members of the National Assembly.

    “The constitution must be amended on time so that the two arms understand their roles. There must be commitment on both sides to collaborate and they must be more serious and committed  with MTEF with the executive making wider consultation with Nigerians before submission,” he added.

    Imoni Amarere, General Manager, Daar Communicatiins said discussion on the budget is always too secretive and confined to the executive and the legisalture.

     

    He advised that the media should be well carried along in the entire process of budget preparation.

     

  • ‎Budget padding not possible without executive-Na’Abba

    ‎Budget padding not possible without executive-Na’Abba

    A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Ghali Na’Abba, has called for proper investigation of the role played by officials in the executive arm in the current budget padding controversy.

    Na’Abba made the call while answering questions from Energy Correspondents, at a workshop organised by Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) in Kano.

    He said it was impossible for the budget to be padded without the connivance of government officials.

    “This stealing of funds cannot be possible without active connivance with some members of the executive arm,” he said.

    On calls for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to resign, Na’Abba said that the call was “unwarranted” as there was no formal indictment of the speaker.

    “According to my understanding, where the issue being referred to as padding comes into play, is a situation where some members go behind and add items of expenditure to what has already been agreed upon.

    “For either stealing the funds or doing whatever they feel like doing with it.

    “So far, accusations are being traded amongst members of the house, but no investigation has been conducted.

    “On the call for the resignation of the Speaker, the question is, what has the Speaker done to warrant his resignation?”

    He called for full investigation to ascertain the level of involvement of members of the House mentioned in the allegation before calling on anyone to resign.

    “I expect that for 16 years of return to democracy, Nigerians would have understood the responsibilities of the National Assembly.

    “For some weeks now, there has been controversy over what is called padding.

    ‘As far as I am concerned, the National Assembly has the responsibility to pass the budget, approve it and allow the executive arm to execute it.”

    On whether padding constituted an offence, Na’Abba said, “It all depends on what angle you look at it, I just told you that the responsibility of appropriation belongs to the national assembly.

    “If padding is seen as an offence, then it is when some members of the national assembly decide to add items of expenditure through the back door after the bill has been passed by the two legislative arms.

    “It therefore behooves on Nigerians to decide who represent them in the national assembly.”

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 30 selected Journalists from the Kaduna Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) attended the three-day workshop, designed sharpen their skills in reporting the Oil and Gas sector.

  • Dogara, others using Police to monitor, harass me  – Jubrin

    Dogara, others using Police to monitor, harass me  – Jubrin

    ….. writes IGP

    Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and three Principal members accused of padding the budget with N40 billion are using Police to harass, monitor and intimidate, the former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmunin Jibrin, his lawyers have said.

    A press release in Abuja Friday by Jibrin’s lawyers titled: “Attempt to blackmail and harass our client Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin with a view to obstruct justice,” said its attention has been drawn to “subterranean and clandestine efforts” of Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, House Whip Hon. Alhassan  Ado Doguwa, and House Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor in such direction.

    “The above quartet have resorted to blackmail our Client into silence and to further harass his person and family using the instrument of the obstructive coercion and perversion of due process by deploying, albeit illegally some elements of the Nigeria Police.

    “You will recall that our Client is in dispute with thesaid quartet over his refusal and inability to admit into the National Budget of 2016, the sum of about 30 Billion Naira at the behest of these quartet and also his refusal to cover up the decision of Speaker Dogara and others’ unilateral decision to distribute to themselves 40 Billion Naira out of the 100 Billion Naira allocated to the entire National Assembly in addition to what our Client considers as wasteful projects of over 20 Billion Naira to their (quartet) various constituencies.

    “We now have it on good authority that these quartet acting in concert are at the moment using some elements within the police to monitor, harass, intimidate and hound our client into an unwarranted detention with the purpose of inhibiting his right to move freely and to express himself as contained in Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

    “The purpose of their antics is to upturn the narrative and paint our client as the black sheep in the flock, and cleverly presenting themselves as transparent angels.

    “Accordingly, we have made appropriate representations to the Inspector General of Police and other relevant security agencies in the Country drawing their attention to this unwarranted and ill-intentioned steps taken by these quartet and not to allow themselves (security agencies) to be used to execute the personal objectives of these quartet; more so appropriate legal action has been taken by our client, as a law abiding citizen, to protect his fundamental rights as guaranteed by our laws.

    “Finally, we hasten to advise Speaker Dogara and the 3 other principal officers mentioned here not to descend to the narrow aim of dragging the institution of the House of Representatives into their personal fight and to note that by virtue of  the institution he leads and as a lawyer, he should act within the confines of the Rule of Law and allow the House of Representatives to institute a special investigation into this matter where our Client will have the opportunity earlier denied him by the quartet to testify and provide evidence against them because he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.”

  • Buhari, Dogara, Nigerien Speaker meet in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday met with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and the Nigerien Speaker, Ousseini Tinni.

    The closed-door meeting was held inside the President’s Office at the State House, Abuja.

    The meeting, which lasted about one hour, was termed ‘private’.

    At the end of the meeting, Dogara and Tinni did not speak with State House correspondents concerning issues discussed at the meeting.

    Dogara dismissed the journalists that approached him with “No, this was a private meeting,”

    No official statement has been issued concerning the meeting.

  • Dogara insists on NSE listing of companies operating in Nigeria

    Dogara insists on NSE listing of companies operating in Nigeria

    In order to deepen and make the Capital Market progress, key players in the Nigerian economy must list their businesses on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has said.

    Dogara made the remark while receiving members of the Capital Market Master Plan Inplementation Council in his office.

    The House of Representatives, he said, is willing to provide all necessary support, through legislations, incentives and any other instruments to compel all major companies in the country get listed on NSE.

    His words: “One of the deepest issues that we have to address is that of value that is being created and completely taken away by corporations. In other words, in some jurisdictions, they refer to it as corporate greed; where many companies are generating value investing in Nigeria, reaping profits but you find out that nine people will sit and just share billions of profit. I’m not exaggerating, it is happening right now in Nigeria and I am glad you listed one of them.

    “But by listing in the Nigerian Stock Exchange, it even helps in the income improvement of the ordinary citizen because they can invest in that company and whatever profits the company makes goes round and that reflects on the economy. But that is not what is happening.”

    The Speaker, however applauded the council for being focused and having a vision and plan for moving the Nigerian Stock Market ahead, adding that if democracy cannot deliver on the goods to Nigerians, then democracy is on trial.

    He further urged the council to look into tightening the regulatory power of Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure that manipulators of the NSE are properly sanctioned as a deterrent to future misdeeds, and to restore investors’ confidence in the market.

    Dogara said there is a need to define timelines for achieving set objectives in revamping the sector, while explaining that that is the only way to ensure that the whole process does not become another talk shop.

    Mr Olutola Mobolurin, head of the council, in an earlier remark urged the Speaker and the House to partner with the council to rebuild the NSE in order to grow the economy and diversify it.

    Mobolurin said the roles of the Investment and Securities Tribunal, should be defined by law, and sought an amendment to the law with regards to mutualisation of NSE, and clear legislation on unclaimed dividends, crowd funding, price stability in Commodities Market,  Trustees Act and the Housing sector through mortgage bank securities.

  • Resident Doctors suspend proposed strike

    Resident Doctors suspend proposed strike

    The proposed indefinite strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) scheduled to commence Thursday, has been suspended for one week to allow the House of Representatives intervene between them and the executive.

    This reprieve was sequel to a meeting between the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara and the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria, NARD,

    The meeting was convened at Dogara’s instance and presided over by him according to a statement issued by his spokesman Turaki Hassan in Abuja.

    The suspension was sequel to the meeting between the association’s executive members, the Speaker and chairmen of relevant House Committees in his office.

    Dogara while speaking asked for a week for the House to meet with the Minister of Health and fashion out ways to meet the demands of the resident doctors and address lingering grievances.

    According to him, democracy is about the well-being of the citizens, and he further appealed to the association to understand that the country is presently going through financial challenges.

    Dogara said, “It doesn’t matter what faith you profess, for instance, it is clearly stated in the Holy Bible that a labourer should be paid his wages even before his sweat dries.

    “I believe that as a responsible government we know this. It is not like we don’t know. But as to challenges facing you, these are not things that we had discussed before, I only heard through the briefings I was given.

    “If it is possible for you to open this window for us in the immediate to call on relevant persons who are in charge of this, in conjuction, of course, with active participation of your good selves, the relevant committees of the House, so we can sit at a table like this.

    “I can sit down with the chairmen of committees, some members of the relevant committees, with your good selves and members of the ministry and they can bring these issues so we’ll understand why someone will work for four to eight months and not be paid. What is the problem? And then, we will attempt to address these issues together and if it doesn’t work, we can’t stop you from venting your anger and expressing your grievances.

    I appeal to you to give us till next week when I hope we will be able to invite them and we will sit down together and iron out the issues.”

    “Imagine a situation where all the resident doctors in Nigeria are on strike, what will happen to the people we represent? Democracy’s first promise is life, thereafter liberty, the third promise is the pursuit of happiness. And all of them rest on each other, if you don’t have life, then you cannot begin to talk of liberty, if you don’t have liberty then you cannot begin to talk about happiness.

    “So, ultimately, all the three hang on life. When there is no life, there is nothing, democracy is useless because a dead man doesn’t have liberty.

    “So for us, democracy itself is life and when you ignore sectors that provide these very essential services that support the health of our people, then we are even scouring democracy itself and its promises and so I agree with you entirely.

    “It should be the responsibility of government, actually, to ensure that those who are rendering services, those who are working, providing the vents by which the nation moves, should be able to enjoy not just their salaries, but every other benefit surrounding their scheme of service.”

    Dogara lamented that the wealth of Nigeria has shrunk due to decreased crude oil income and that it’s affecting the ability for government to deliver on its responsibilities.

    The National President, Dr. Muhammad Askira, has earlier informed the Speaker that members of the association have not been paid salaries and other entitlements for several months.