By Emman Ovuakporie

The Eighth House of Representatives will probably go into history as on that showcased the highest number of probes.

Yakubu Dogara

Two and half years down the line, the 8th House has investigated well over 45 matters involving fraud, alleged sharp and unwholesome practices laced with corruption.

The moves were apparently aimed at helping the Muhammadu Buhari led administration to expose corruption which was the singular reason Nigerians voted for the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The Dogara House was, however, challenged as the executive arm hardly respected the resolutions of the House.

Some of the high-profile probes included   those into allegations of   stolen crude oil and gas from Nigerian shores, $1.5b loan procurement, the face-off between the Nigerian Ports Authority,  NPA and Intels,  a probe on the alleged missing $60.3bn petroleum profit tax revenue, probe on the utilisation of funds accrued to River Basins, Federal Medical Centres.

An ad-hoc Committee to ascertain the proceeds of the Treasury Single Account, TSA was also set up among many other probes conducted by the standing committees and ad-hoc committees.

The House leadership set deadlines ranging from four to six weeks for the investigations with the threat of sanctions on committees that failed to honour such.

Some of these committees that could not meet up with the deadlines saw the ugly side of Dogara as he made sure they were scrapped.

This development made most probe panels to churn in their reports.

Remarkably, a number of committees including some with chairmen having close affinity to Speaker Dogara were in the year 2017 known to have slowed down.

From all indications, the House leadership may take a decisive action on these colourless Chairmen who are increasingly seen as pulling down the purposes of the House leadership.

Legislations:

Dogara, again, may emerge as the Speaker that piloted a House with the highest Bills passed in a legislative session.

As at August, the bills passed by the Dogara House had hit well over 670.

But this House may suffer some setbacks if the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, PIGB is allowed to foot drag and wait for the Senate to complete the task and wait to harmonise.

Since the Committee was inaugurated nothing tangible has been heard about the Committee headed by the Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa.

The PIB now known as the PIGB is the oldest Bill in the National Assembly spanning a period of more than 11 years.

For the House to repeat the feat of the 7th House that held the bull by the horn and ensured its passage, Dogara’s men may need more action this time around as the signals from the Doguwa led PIGB Committee are not encouraging.

As the House enters the year 2018, Dogara needs to constantly watch over his shoulders like the Yoruba Kings do as the  sychophants surrounding Dogara are too many that he needs the wisdom of the kings to steer his House properly in the year preceding the 2019 elections.