Why C’ttees must drive change — Dogara

By Musa Abdullahi Krishi & Ibrahim Kabiru Sule | Publish Date: Dec 28 2015 9:34PM | Updated Date: Dec 28 2015 9:36PM

 

Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara

Since the inception of the current democratic dispensation in 1999, there have been four different sets of lawmakers that manned various committees set up during the periods. 

But it is the current set of national legislators that blazed the trail by organizing a retreat for the committee chairmen and their deputies in the House of Representatives.

The retreat with the theme 'Effective Management of Committees' took place on Monday, December 14 at Conference Room 028 of the House. Organized by the office of the speaker and the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), the retreat offered the participants, most of whom are new lawmakers, the opportunity to appreciate the tasks of committee chairmen and deputies.

It all started with a welcome address by Deputy Speaker Yussuf Suleimon Lasun, who said the retreat was a compelling necessity which was designed to acquaint the participants with the workings of the committees and their pre-eminent positions in the effective functioning of the parliament.
Lasun said: “The committees, traditionally, are expected to be the eyes and ears of the parliament. They interface with the people more as a microcosm of the chamber. The committees are, therefore, expected to get closer to our constituents.

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“When the committees are sitting, they are, by extension, considered as Parliament in session, and specifically with the chairmen, having collegiate authority with the Speaker in session.”
He stated that committees employed several oversight tools or mechanisms to effectively carry out their functions,  adding that the oversight tools employed by the National Assembly included questioning and interactions, visitations and inspections, bills referral and committee hearings, investigative hearings, consideration and approval of appropriation bills as well as vetting of auditor-general's reports amongst others.

He, therefore, advised the committee chairmen and their deputies to ensure that they were not only guided by law, but also try to be above board while dealing with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as the success or failure of the 8th House would be determined primarily by the way and manner the committees discharged their responsibilities.

The second person to speak at the event was Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who delivered a keynote address and declared the retreat open. Dogara, whose address was lengthy, appealed to the participants and other guests to exercise patience.

Dogara, who also chaired the event, stayed from 10.am to 6.pm. He warned the committee chairmen and their deputies to shun acts of corruption in order not to compromise the image and mission of the 8th Assembly.

He said: “You must not succumb to persons or institutions that will seek to influence your judgment through corrupt means. If you take bribe from any person, you will impugn and destroy the integrity of the House as an institution. You will also scandalise yourself. You will compromise the image and the mission of the 8th Assembly. I wish to warn that we should avoid being dragged into the murky waters of corruption because we cannot beat the swines that specialise in wrestling there, to their own game. Once you are sucked in there, you are dead in the waters.  Corrupt practices is and will never be part of the Legislative Agenda of the 8th Assembly"

Dogara also tasked the committee heads to pay attention on the need to expose waste, corruption and inefficiency in the executive by carrying out thorough investigation of their activities.
“For emphasis, our chairmen and their deputies should lead their various committees in the war against corruption and graft. Our investigative activities must be based only on the need to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within our legislative competence and in the administration of funds appropriated by the National Assembly.”

Speaking on the powers of the National Assembly to summon any person to give evidence or as witness during its investigative hearings, the speaker said Section 89 of the constitution clearly spells such out.
“The committee on rules and business must ensure that henceforth all resolutions requiring investigative hearing must have a legislative purpose stated in the resolution itself, in order to pass judicial scrutiny, where necessary,” he said.

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The speaker emphasized that parliaments were indispensable institutions of representative democracy with the sole aim to represent the people, ensure that public policy was informed by citizens' views and voices, and legislate for the common good of the citizens.

Dogara added, however, that the committees were not meant to weaken the executive, stressing that they were constitutionally empowered as agents of the House to prevent misuse and abuse of executive power.
“The objective of activities of committees is not to obstruct but to scrutinize and identify gaps and errors and correct same through legislative activities and legislation. Members of the National Assembly are specifically elected and swore to an oath of office to check and balance improper exercise of executive action on behalf of the Nigerian people," he said.

“Change itself must be regulated so that our people would not face the dangers of unregulated change.... In this respect, legislative committees, as the engine room of our legislative activities, can complement the change efforts of the executive. 

The committees of the House, of which you are chairmen and deputy chairmen, must become drivers of the change process espoused and expounded by the current administration geared towards providing physical and economic infrastructure as well as social policies that would provide opportunities for all Nigerians, especially the poor and the vulnerable," he added.

A total of six papers were presented at the retreat. The first paper was by the NILS Director General Dr Ladi Hamalai, whose presentation was titled 'Committees and legislative effectiveness in the Nigerian National Assembly.'

Dr Hamalai said a legislature in chamber was a legislature on display, while a legislature in committee was a legislature at work, adding that the success of any committee depends on the level of commitment of its members.

She said that in Nigeria, the large number of committees implied that a lawmaker could belong to as many as five committees at a time, adding that the smaller the committee size, the better the participation level.
She said for any committee to be effective, it must frequently engage on oversight visits and inspections, public/investigative hearings, and meetings/interactive sessions among others.
In a paper titled 'Challenges of Legislative Oversight from the Perspective of the Executive Arm of Government’, the former minister of national planning, Abubakar Suleiman, identified lack of capacity, corruption, skewed committees' composition, political interference and inadequate institutions and funds as the bane of the Nigerian legislature.

Suleiman said Nigeria's political development was anchored on the vibrancy of the legislature and the extent to which it could implement its principle of check and balances, arguing that democratic culture and tenet could only be seen to be enshrined in our body polity if the legislative organ patriotically discharged its constitutional role of oversight.

“Where it fails to do so, as we currently experienced in Nigeria, recourse to relative anarchy, tyranny or dictatorship would result. I make bold to say that Nigeria is better off than we were in 1999," he added, saying that at some point, the country "had almost semi-illiterate members dominating the parliament coupled with the unskilled, inexperienced parliamentarians on account of long years of military rule."
He concluded that there was need for adequate training and retraining of committees' members, saying members should be exposed to the new legislative practice and traditions among others.
Another former minister, Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, who presented a paper on the same topic identified timing and frequent invitations, assumption that oversight was vindictive and a witch-hunt, intimidation, blackmail, arm twisting as some of the challenges.

Special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Senate Matters, Senator Ita Enang, whose paper was 'Planning and Implementing Legislative Investigation and Public Hearings', said it was important to know that the investigative or public hearings must be conducted in accordance with the constitution and parliamentary tested convention.
Enang said some of the things to be considered were whether the matter to be investigated was within the legislative competence of the National Assembly.

Mohammed Kumalia, a former minority leader in the House, presented a paper titled ‘Reforming the Legal Framework and Practice of Legislative Oversight of MDAs’. Kumaila said oversights were primarily done to ensure executive compliance with legislative intent, improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and economy of government operations, evaluate programme performance, prevent executive encroachment on legislative prerogatives and powers, investigate alleged instances of poor administration, arbitration and capricious behavior, abuse, waste, dishonesty and fraud among others.

He said in order for parliamentary committees to command the respect of the organs and officials of the executive arm, the committee business must be conducted in a business-like fashion, devoid of sentiments, patronage and show of personal interest.

In another paper with the topic 'The Role of Committee Chairmen in the Bill Process’, the former chairman of the House committee on rules and business, Albert Tanimu Sam Tsokwa, said a committee chairman coordinated all the processes of treating a bill once it was referred.

Source:Dailytrust