The speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Bello-Masari, last week led the cream of the leadership of the house on a two day visit to Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States respectively where he met with the leadership of the executive and legislative arms of government from the two states as well as a cross section of members of the public in what the House dubbed ‘We Serve You’.
The session, according to the speaker, was designed to allow members of the House of Representatives explain to the electorate what they had been doing since their election into the highest legislative house in the land and to give members of the public an opportunity to ask questions on why the House passed certain laws as well as giving every Nigerian an opportunity to make an input into the process of law making.
For the speaker, the second leg of his tour which started with the session in Sokoto State two months ago was a consolidation of an exercise, which was embarked upon with extreme caution. The reasons are not far-fetched.
During the last legislative session, the former speaker, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, embarked on an elaborate and grandiose launching of his pet project called “Contract With Nigeria”. The programme was tailored along similar legislative agenda set by the former speaker of the American congress, Newton Gingrich. But like most activities under the former speaker, the programme was dead the moment it was officially unveiled because of the unending war between the House of Representatives and the executive arm of government.
Moreover, there was no clear agenda on how to prosecute the so-called Contract with Nigeria. Bearing in mind the controversy that surrounded the Contract with Nigeria experience and the seeming low profile of the present house in the eyes of most Nigerians therefore, Hon. Masari, who has been a grassroots man wanted to make a difference and to feel the pulse of the people especially their perception of the National Assembly and their thinking about the laws made by the National Assembly, especially bearing in mind the widespread belief though erroneous, that the size of ones pocket determines the passage of a Bill by the National Assembly, set out his agenda.
The fact that there was an impending nationwide strike as a result of the increment in the prices of petroleum products made the whole exercise very promising. When the speaker and his team which was made up of the Deputy Speaker, Austin Oparah, the House Leader, Abdul Ningi, the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abike Dabiri, as well as the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Faruk Adamu Aliyu and other members of the House of Representatives stormed Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital, the huge crowd that thronged the Ibom square to witness the interactive session were justifiably expectant. And at the end of the session almost everybody went away with a sense of fulfillment that an attempt was made by government officials to explain government position to the so called ordinary people.
But the session promised to be interesting from the very beginning. As the speaker and his team paid a courtesy call on the deputy governor, Obong Ekpenyong, who stood in for the governor, Victor Attah, a silhouette of what the team would confront was given by the deputy governor.
But what was uppermost in the minds of the people, the governor said, was the issue of the location of the headquarters of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited as well as the issue of the payment of the state’s share of the 13% derivation should be looked into by the federal legislature. At the state house of assembly where a special session was held in honour of the speaker and his team, the speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Nelson Effiong hailed the initiative of the speaker to meet the people for whom the laws are supposed to serve. According to him: ‘‘The We Serve You’’ initiative “has portrayed the House of Representatives as the bulwark of democracy in Nigeria and has demonstrated that this house is a true representative of the people. We have watched with keen interest the attempts by the House of Representatives to fight for good governance of the people in this country. This initiative to meet the people for whom the laws you make are supposed to serve to further instill confidence in the leadership of the house. We are very proud of the House of Representatives,” he said.
At the Ibom square where it appeared the whole state had turned out to meet with members of the House of Representatives, a rare opportunity was offered to the speaker to meet the real people in their elements. There were taxi drivers, Okada riders, indigent pensioners, students, youth leaders and leaders of other non-governmental organisations.
For a people who are not used to having government action explained to them, the opportunity presented by the speaker was too good to be missed. And they came in droves to open up their mind and hear out their representatives.
To underscore the seriousness of the programme, a former respected senator from the state, Akaniyan Ekpanem chaired the occasion which allowed for uncensored questions on all subject matters. Setting the tone for the day, the senator recalled that it was in the House of Representatives more than forty years ago that the motion for the independence of the country was moved.
He added that under the leadership of Masari, the House has not allowed itself to remain impotent but has been striving to maintain the unity of the country. And then the floodgate of questions started.
One member of the public wanted to know why states are not allowed to control their resources as was the case when we had the famous Kano groundnut pyramid. Another member of the public wanted the National Assembly to amend the constitution dissolving the State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECs, since, according to him, they were working at cross purposes with the tenets of democracy. And yet another member of the public, a pensioner, almost at the point of tears, appealed to the speaker to prevail on the federal government to ensure prompt payment of pensions.
But the question that drew perhaps the largest applause was on the issue of the convocation of a sovereign national conference. A member of the public asked the speaker why members of the national assembly were reluctant to convene a sovereign national conference as, according to him, that appears to be the feeling of majority of the Nigerian people.
And when a member of the public raised the issue of the citing of the headquarters of Mobil out side its operational base, the hall went wild in paroxysms of ecstasy. It was as if everybody was waiting for that one question.
When it was the turn of the speaker to respond, there was pin drop silence in the hall.
On the issue of the sovereign national conference, the speaker pointed out that those who are championing the cause for its convocation are those who have lost out in the scheme of things.
He said that if the members of the national Assembly are not competent in the reckoning of the proponents of SNC, ‘‘they should contest elections and come to the national assembly to influence whatever they want.”
He told the pensioners that the house was doing everything possible to reduce the sufferings of the pensioners:
“It is wicked for somebody to put in his youth for the country and be allowed to suffer when he needs the support of the country most”, the speaker said.
On the scrapping of the SIEC from the constitution, the speaker explained that though many people have complained about the performance of the SIEC, it would be inappropriate for amendments to be made on the spur of the moment. “Laws are not made for the exigency of the moment” he said. “‘we make laws for generations yet unborn. The SIEC are not doing well, we have to challenge our members in the state Houses of Assembly to be more vigilante and live up to their responsibilities. Abolition of SIEC is not necessary now because if you do that you would be over centralising and that is not good for federalism” he said.
On the citing of the headquarters of Mobil in Akwa Ibom, the speaker said though the House of Representatives cannot legislate on where a company should cite its headquarters, “it is morally wrong for a company to cite its headquarters outside its operational base. We can only appeal to the company to do that”, he said.
With the assurances that the House of Representatives would dispassionately look into the Labour amendment Bill, the House sitting in Akwa Ibom state came to a close. The view of one member of the public who participated in the interactive session perhaps encapsulated the view of many members of the public who were there.
According to Mr. Aniete Umoh, “if our elected members would take a cue from the House of Representatives and explain some of the policies of government as the speaker has just done, perhaps the tension in the country would be reduced” he said.
In Calabar where the sheer beauty of the town almost overwhelmed the speaker and his delegation, local issues were brought to the front burner. The boundary issue with Akwa Ibom, the non-performance of local governments and the difficulty in the country, dominated discussion.
Though the speaker answered all the questions posed to him, when a gentleman in the public asked him what was Obasanjo’s problem with the cost of petroleum products, it was one question that the speaker could not answer satisfactorily although it should be conceded, he tried his best. As he and his colleagues trooped out of the venue of the interactive session, one voice from the crowd shouted a parting message for the speaker to deliver to the president: “Nigerians are tired of the incessant increases without any improvement in their status.”
Now, whether the speaker has relayed the question to Obasanjo is what the people of Cross River State are waiting to hear.
