By EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

THE basic question on the lips of most Nigerians is what will the House of Representatives showcase this time around? Is it going to be the usual rowdy session or the issue of how the loot is going to be shared or better still allegations and counter allegations as was displayed by the demised Sixth Assembly?

These questions arose from the maiden speech of the Speaker Waziri Aminu Tambuwal led House. One of his promises centre around the fact that the Lower Chamber would abide by the ethics of accountability and a promise not to leave his colleagues out of the scheme of things.

But it goes beyond mere semantics as the challenges ahead are enormous considering the fact that 256 members are greenhorns in the act of making laws. This challenge may make the House operate at a snail pace.

According to Rep Abah Adamu, a former member, the Federal Government may have to spend so much money training and re-training the new members for them to adapt to the act of legislating hence it is better to allow continuity, which  creates room for experience on the job.

Zakari Mohammed a first timer and a journalist of over two decades, representing Biratin/Kaiama Federal Constituency in Kwara,PDP, however has a counter view. He said: “Most of us the first timers are men of proven integrity, who had excelled in our various professions before venturing into politics.I had to get somebody who was vast in the act before the inauguration to teach me the rudiments and so did my other colleagues who are ready to help to fix project Nigeria.”

This issue of training new Reps, who constitute the bulk of the new House is a major challenge for Tambuwal and his principal officers, who must teach their fresher colleagues the ABC of lawmaking for the House to meet expectations of Nigerians and move Nigeria forward.

Many of the fresher Reps are already fraternizing with the old horses in the game, who are willing to teach them how to run the affairs of the House without  getting their hands burnt like some of their predecessors  who allowed the attachments of their offices to get into their heads.

In the defunct Assembly of the 360 member House only 50 Reps were active as the rest were just onlookers and concur members who contributed nothing for the four year span that it lasted.

Most of these ineffective members were shown the way out by their constituents who saw nothing good coming from them but these bunch of Reps are no push over as they won based on popularity and popular demand by their people.

Tajudeen Yusuf the man who humbled Rep Dino Melaye in the last National Assembly poll falls within this category of vibrant fresher legislators who came on board via sheer dint of hard work and acceptance by their people.

According to him, the House of Reps all over the world is constituted by young men and women who are radically oriented; Nigerians should not expect anything short of that because it cannot operate in isolation of other nations of the world.

Nigerians should expect to see a more focused and people friendly lower chamber that agreed to a pay cut from the jumbo elephantiasis salaries passed by the defunct highly scandalous House of Reps that considered self first before the interest of those they represented.

The many unattended to bills that the 6th Assembly hurriedly left behind particularly the 406 clause Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB and many other people and state oriented bills for either lack of time or outright impatience as 151 clauses had already being treated in the PIB before it was dumped.

Rep Friday Itulah, Edo PDP, on the bills left behind told the Vanguard that the new House would look into it and treat the clauses accordingly that that there was no cause for alarm.

Nigerians are eager to see a more transparently and honestly focused House that would shun’ Ghana must go bag’ because it might contain a bomb, shun corruption because it could make one to rest in an anti-graft agency’s custody for weeks and above all fear God while legislating for our dear country.