By Emmanuel Aziken

News that the National Assembly has again proceeded on recess is bound to raise dust among hardworking Nigerians. Why should men who sit for a few hours between Tuesday and Thursday be so adapted to holidays is a question many would ask? The legislators who reconvened for the Second Session on June 14 subsequently proceeded on Sallah Break on June 23 and returned on July 12.

Last Thursday, the legislators again proceeded on a seven-week annual recess and were not due to return until September 13, all things being equal.

This particular holiday is bound to be an eventful experience for the Nigerian lawmakers especially given the difficult financial straits the country is passing through. The gist in Abuja is that the quarterly constituency packages for lawmakers are now being dispensed monthly. The latitude of the legislators to use their positions to exert pressure on the MDAs has also been dramatically blunted in the wake of the Change philosophy of the new administration.

Even worse, the passage of the 2016 budget according to some sources was the most unrewarding exercise for the lawmakers in the history of budget making in the Fourth Republic. The processing of the budget in the past offered opportunity for ministers and heads of agencies to entice legislators through projects and other inducements that ballooned the accounts of many legislators.

There were reports that some legislators who went for the lesser hajj during the Sallah Break were almost stranded on account of the delay in the payment of their June salaries.

However, even under rosy times, the long recess was not something many legislators looked forward to. Spending seven weeks with ever demanding constituents was a nightmare many did not look forward to. Waking up in the morning to attend to constituents’ every need or obligatory invitations to ceremonies was an option many had in the past simply avoided by travelling abroad once recess approached.

For the lawmakers, the comparative cost of staying abroad was significantly lesser than the millions they were compelled to spend during vacations at home. However, for members of the present National Assembly, going abroad looks more challenging considering the fallen value of the naira and the dramatically reduced opportunities from the MDAs.

Of course, not every legislator was bound to such pressures. Those who did not depend on constituents for their return tickets to the National Assembly, or those who believed they would not be returning were not obligated to spend time in the constituency.

We All Love Juicy Committees

Presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives had in the past claimed that the committees were the same. Such assertions were made to debunk agitations by legislators for what was often described as juicy committees.

The fact that some committees are indeed juicy was brought home by two different developments in the Senate and the House this week.

The sack of Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin as chairman of the powerful House Committee on Appropriation brought out a vengeful retribution from the House member from Kano State. Jibrin was removed on Wednesday and the following day he spewed out several allegations against four principal officers of the House, who were supposedly architects of his downfall.

Besides the development in the House was the even more extensive shake-up in the Senate which saw some of the leading opponents of Senate President Bukola Saraki get more juicy committee positions.

The most conspicuous names were Senators Kabiru Marafa and Oluremi Tinubu, who were moved from the committees of National Population and Women Affairs to Downstream Petroleum and Environment respectively. Though it would not be said that the former First Lady of Lagos is one who can be tempted by juice, her reposting has been said to be one of the recommendations of the Senator James Manager led ad-hoc committee constituted to resolve the troubles in the House.

Remarkably, Senator Manager, who made the recommendations was affected by the reshuffle as he was moved from the juicy committee on power to the committee on solid minerals.