Headlines
Cash Crunch: NASS Reduces Sittings to Once a Week
The two chambers of the National Assembly may not meet the mandatory constitutional requirement of 181 sittings yearly because of reduction in number of sitting days to once a week.
Section 63 of the Constitution provides that the Senate and House of Representatives shall each sit for not less than 181 days in a year. And section 68 thereof states that any legislator who fails to attend the proceedings of the House or Senate for less than one third of the required number of days shall automatically lose his or her seat.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the House of Representatives has been sitting once a week as opposed to the usual three times per week. The Senate has been struggling to hold plenary session twice, and in some cases once, per week.
It was learnt that insufficient funds to carry out legislative works caused the inability to have three sittings in a week.
Apart from the legislative business of the National Assembly which is being adversely affected, there is also the problem of delay in payment of allowances and other entitlements of the lawmakers allegedly caused by non-release of funds by the Ministry of Finance as when due.
The Guardian gathered that concerted efforts to persuade the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to release some funds failed.
A lawmaker, who spoke in confidence, revealed that the First Line Charge budgetary provision for the National Assembly has not been met for a long time since this administration came in.
“Also, informal methods of raising fund from federal agencies to support parliamentary needs are no longer as effective as they were,” he added.
It was learnt that following the failure of some committees to get the minister to act, the entire leadership of the National Assembly invited her for questioning.
At the meeting, questions were put to Ahmed on why the constituency projects accommodated in the 2020 budget have not been implemented satisfactorily.
The National Assembly had, in December, 2020, extended the capital component of that year’s budget to March 31, 2021 to give the executive enough time to implement it.
Most painful to the lawmakers, some of whom, have resorted to quiet protest against the National Assembly leadership, is the non-implementation of the zonal intervention programmes, popularly called constituency projects.
Another lawmaker said that visiting constituencies or Senatorial Districts had become a nightmare for legislators because of the unrelenting pressure from their constituents.
The Presidency has dismissed claims that Vice President Kashim Shettima’s recent comments were directed at the political situation in Rivers State or President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s constitutional decisions on the matter.
In a statement on Friday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha, the Presidency described the reports as a “gross misrepresentation.”
The statement clarified that Vice President Shettima’s remarks at the public presentation of a book by former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), were misconstrued by some online platforms and individuals.
“These reports have distorted the Vice President’s comments in pursuit of a mischievous agenda,” it stated.
“They twisted his account of how the administration of former President Jonathan considered removing him as Borno Governor during the insurgency to falsely link it with current events in Rivers State.”
The Vice President, who spoke at the launch of OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block in Abuja on Thursday, was said to have referenced the past solely to commend Adoke’s professionalism while in office, and to reflect on Nigeria’s constitutional evolution regarding federal and state relations.
“For the avoidance of doubt, President Tinubu did not remove Governor Fubara from office. The constitutional measure implemented was a suspension, not an outright removal.
“This action was taken in response to the grave political crisis in Rivers State at the time, with the governor facing a looming impeachment and the State Assembly complex under demolition,” Nkwocha clarified.
The Presidency insisted that the action taken by President Tinubu in declaring a state of emergency and suspending the Governor was fully in line with Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which authorises such measures when there is a breakdown of public order requiring extraordinary intervention.
According to the statement, the President’s proclamation invoking Section 305(2) was subsequently ratified by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the National Assembly, confirming the legitimacy and constitutional propriety of the decision.
“The action of President Tinubu in suspending Mr. Fubara and others from exercising the functions of office averted the governor’s outright removal. To conflate suspension with removal is misleading,” the statement further noted.
Nkwocha also stressed that Vice President Shettima’s comments were delivered extemporaneously and intended to underline the importance of public accountability and historical documentation.
He referenced the Vice President’s mention of past public servants, including Adoke and former Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to illustrate principled leadership.
“His remarks were not in any way a criticism of President Tinubu’s actions, which the Vice President and the entire administration fully support and stand by without reservation,” the spokesman stated.
The Vice President, the statement added, remains in “loyal concert” with President Tinubu and is committed to implementing all constitutional measures necessary to safeguard democracy and uphold order across the country.
Concluding, the Presidency called on media organisations and political actors to desist from misrepresenting public remarks for sensational or partisan purposes.
“We urge media organisations and political actors to desist from the destructive practice of wrenching statements from context in order to fabricate nonexistent conflicts,” Nkwocha said.
Headlines
Akpabio Relieves Natasha of Committee Chairmanship Position, Appoints Akwa Ibom Senator As Replacement
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has replaced suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora/Non-Governmental Organisations.
In her place, Akpabio named Senator Bassey Aniekun Etim (Akwa Ibom -East).
The Senate President, who made the announcement on the floor in Abuja on Thursday, did not give any reasons.
The committee position had remained vacant since March when the Senate suspended the Kogi-Central Senatorial District lawmaker for six months for flouting the Senate’s rule on the seating arrangement and seat allocation.
The suspended lawmaker, at a point, chaired the Senate Committee on Local Content before Akpabio reassigned her to the Committee on Diaspora/NGO, shortly before she ran into trouble with the Senate over her conduct on seat allocation.
The Supreme Court has affirmed the 2024 governorship election victory of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asuerinme Ighodalo.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court ruled that the appeal lacked merit. It upheld the earlier judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had both declared Okpebholo the validly elected governor.
