Yar'Adua Concerned About 'Go Slow' In National Assembly by Martins Oloja

INDICATIONS emerged in Abuja at the weekend that acrimony may presage anniversary of 10 years of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria and President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration's two years in office this month.

Reason: There may be some accusations and counter-accusations on which arm of government has slowed down the pace of governance processes in Nigeria's seat of power.

The stage for this was set last week when The Guardian was concluding inquiries on some anniversary appraisal stories including absence of robust debates on Bills on the floors of both chambers of the National Assembly.

Key actors of both the executive and legislature spoke in various ways where there were sharp disagreements on almost everything.

They were approached to comment why there had been too few Bills, to keep the federal legislators busy in and out of the chambers.

Thus, it was discovered that the President, who was concluding arrangements to go to South Africa, for the inauguration of Mr. Joseph Zuma as new South African president yesterday; was still ruminating over a recent subdued meeting he had with leaders and members of the National Assembly.

At the parley, he had reportedly complained about the level of procrastination on most of the reform agenda Executive Bills that had been gathering dust at the legislative chambers some since early 2008.

It was learnt that there was assurance that the Bills would be worked on with some dispatch.

The Guardian obtained a list of 61 documented Bills and six new ones on electoral reforms, totalling 68 Bills awaiting passage in the Assembly where in February, 54 public hearings were awaiting attention in the House of Representatives alone.

But the Assembly information managers at the weekend denied that there were up to 68 Bills pending.

Concerns also grew in the Presidency that most of the Bills listed in the catalogue might be "missing in transit," as FoI finished Bill reportedly got missing in May 2007 when President Yar'Adua's predecessor was clearing tables to leave office.

Before he left for Pretoria at the weekend, it was said that the President, who has variously been criticised for his slow pace of governance, was deeply concerned about the state of the 68 Bills despite assurances by key officials of the legislature.

He was said to be complaining too about the 'Go-Slow' affliction in the Assembly.

It was confirmed that some of the President's key men were doing some comparative analysis of the number of Bills that had been pending there and the ones the US Congress got passed within Obama's first 100 days in office.

One of the officials, who did some research, reportedly shook his head in one observation session and gave a lengthy lecture:

"I believe Nigerians should be asking questions about delay in considering Bills in the National Assembly where the news is all about oversight functions and probes...

"What is more, most of these 68 Bills have not even gone through the first reading, against the background that in 100 days, President Obama was able to get 14 Bills through the Congress.

"President Obama too got the 2010 Appropriation Bill passed within five days because the members were there at the crucial time even in the night. And nobody said the American Congress was a 'rubber stamp' institution.

"Here, only Appropriation Bills get passed after long delays and acrimonies despite the preponderance of members of the ruling PDP in the Assembly.

"Yes, we can understand some peculiarities in our own genre of democracy. But what happened to the Freedom of Information Bill the President sent back to them more than a year ago?"

Coincidentally, the President's concern over legislative procrastination is in tandem with the worry and anger expressed recently by a key actor in the National Assembly, the House Speaker Dimeji Bankole.

He had within three months cautioned members of the Lower House. On February 19, 2009, at a plenary session, the Speaker was so outraged that he cautioned members against what he called childishness and "frivolities" that could cause delay in carrying out their core constitutional function of law making.

In his inaugural speech on January 20 when he was sworn-in, President Obama said, "it is time to do away with childish things."

On this score, trouble began that day in the House of Representatives for frivolous talkers when the Bankole noticed that in quick succession, seven points of order had been raised from the standing rules of the House.

The last straw was the seventh one raised by a member representing Ehime Mbatto/Ihitte Uboma/Obowo federal constituency in Imo State, Mr. Austin Nwachukwu.

The representative had called a point of order based on Order 5 of the rules and drawn attention of the House to two members from Delta State - John Halims Agoda and Leo Ogor, who were arrayed in their traditional wears.

The angry Speaker had drawn attention of the House to the enormous jobs on the table where frivolities were on all fours that day. He said that apart from 54 public hearings pending then, the House had 21 Bills and only eight reports to be considered and only three already considered.

The Speaker directed that the pending 54 public hearings should be concluded within two weeks from then. Inquiries showed last week that they had not been concluded.

Again, last week, the Speaker warned against what he called "useless motions and points of order." Apparently flustered that no lesson had been learnt since 19 February when he fired the first shot, he again told his colleagues point blank:

"There are 28 Bills pending. We need to work on those Bills before we go on recess. We need to expedite action on them and avoid frivolities through motions and points of order."

But at brief separate interviews, the spokespersons of the two chambers of the National Assembly, Senator Ayogu Eze, chairman Senate Committee on Information, Media and Publicity and Ezeme Eyiboh, chairman House Committee on Media and Publicity said critics of the legislature were grossly ignorant of the processes of law-making.

They said that the oversight function they were accused of emphasising over and above lawmaking was not frivolous, as sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution give the legislature the powers to do so.




Senator Eze said: "It is not true that there are up to 68 Executive Bills that the National Assembly have been negligent in concluding.

"But critics and accusers should note that the process of lawmaking is very rigorous. We don't play to the gallery in making laws. It is a serious business.

"Besides, we must be careful because ideally, there should be one body of law: one should complement the other. Therefore, efficiency, effectiveness and productivity should not be sacrificed on the altar of speed you talked about.

"Yes, we don't want efficiency to suffer... It is not the quantum of laws but it is the quality of laws made that matters in the end."