BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR
BETWEEN the House of Representatives (HOR) and the Senate, the HOR most times cut the picture of the more vibrant but volatile arm of the National Assembly. With 360 younger men compared to the Senate’s 109 ‘matured’ lawmakers, it would have been unusual if the Upper Chamber generated more heat and controversies.

Although  the Senate generates lesser smoke, it beats the House in terms of production of leaders. Since 1999, the Senate has produced six Senate Presidents – late Evans Enwerem and Chuba Okadigbo, Anyim Pius Anyim, Adolphus Wabara, Ken Nnamani and David Mark.

Conversely, the HOR within the period produced five speakers – Salisu Buhari, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, Aminu Bello Masari, Patricia Ette and Dimeji Bankole –  an indication of a more stable leadership even though the House had weathered more storms than the Senate.

It is on this note that the House will resume on Tuesday, January 18, to conclude the last four months of the current dispensation.

Tasks, challenges facing Reps

Currently, the House of Representatives is engulfed in a fresh controversy: alleged financial crisis.

Reportedly, the HOR is said to be broke and unable to render services, including the funding of committee operations and payment of the allowances of some of the 11 reinstated members.

And seven of the 11 reinstated legislators, who were suspended on June 22, 2010 over their roles in the event that led to the free-for-all on the floor of the House, are yet to be paid their accrued salaries and allowances because of alleged paucity of funds.

Five of the seven –  Dino Melaye, Solomon Awhinawhin, Anas Adamu, Bitus Kaze and Independence Ogunewe-late December 2010, filed contempt charges against the leadership of the House for failing to pay their salaries and allowances.

Melaye said the reinstated lawmakers had not been paid. “That is why we went to court. If we have been paid, why did we go to court,” he asked.

However, Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Labaran Dambatta, denied that the House was broke. Disclosing that his December 2010 salary had been paid, the lawmaker contended that the HOR’s accounts could not be in red.

The dearth of funds controversy, suspension of the 11 members after a brawl and non-payment of some of the reinstated legislators indicate how stormy issues could be in the House of Representatives.

Upon resumption, members will contend with these issues in addition to helping to douse the flickering flames of ethno-religious violence and recurring bomb blasts across the country. They will also contend with 420 bills gathering dusts on their shelves. Notable among these bills are the 2011 Budget, Freedom of Information Bill, and the  Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) among others. The House has passed 98 bills since June 4, 2007 when it was inaugurated.

While going on recess last December, the lawmakers had promised to conclude work on some of the outstanding 420 bills before its tenure runs out on May 29, 2011.

Of the 420 proposed bills, 49 are awaiting the consideration of the Committee of the Whole and another 71 are receiving the attention of various committees.

Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Ahmed Aliu Wadada, dismissed as untrue reports that the House had dumped the FoI Bill, pledging that once the lawmakers returned from their end of year break, serious work would be done on the bill, which is the longest on the shelf of the legislators..

“What may happen is that the bill is likely to be re_committed to the Committee on Information for fresh public hearing and once that is done, my panel will give it accelerated hearing and submit the appropriate report to the House for its passage. There is no hidden agenda at all about it. Nobody stands to benefit from the non_passage of the FoI Bill at all,” Wadada said.

The House under Bankole’s watch

When on November 01, 2007, Dimeji Bankole, then 38, was elected as speaker, some observers, outside the National Assembly, doubted his ability to provide the quality leadership needed to pilot the affairs of the House given the cultural and character mix of the membership and the general complexity of the entire country.

The impression was largely predicated on Bankole’s level of experience in partisan politics and his age compared with those who had become veterans in Nigerian politics and had stayed longer in the House.

Three years and eight months down the line, Bankole’s leadership of the HOR  has shown a mixed-bag of achievements.

After 47 months, the speaker has convinced most of his colleagues that he can lead the House. Except the unexpected happens, he looks set to remain in the saddle till May 29, 2011 when the current tenure will lapse.

Indeed, Second Republic Speaker of the House, Chief Edwin Umeh-Ezeoke, at a special session to mark 10 years of democracy recently, saluted Bankole’s leadership, which he said had served as an effective watchdog of the polity and ensuring that funds appropriated to the Executive for growth and development projects were accounted for.

On this score, the House, through its oversight functions,  recovered N800 billion over a period of one year as amounts approved for 2007 and 2008 budgets but was not disbursed nor returned to the Treasury by Federal ministries and parastatals.

Of this amount, N450 billion and N350 billion were recovered as unspent, undeclared and un-refunded from budgetary allocations approved for 2007 and 2008, respectively.

Relatedly, the House Committee on Customs also discovered that a sum of USD 5 billion realized from Crude Oil Exports as Nigeria Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) Levy had been kept un-remitted to the national coffers without formal declaration.

In like manner, the investigation of the contract for the construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc for N63 billion, an amount considered outrageous, compelled the Executive Arm to revoke the contract.

Through bills, resolutions and motions among others, the House intervened in critical national matters such nationwide teachers strike in July 2008, influx of Chadian refugees into Gamboru -Ngala in Borno State, resettlement of internally displaced people of Bakassi, shooting of Nigerians in South Africa, frequent attacks on Nigerians living in Bakassi by Cameroonian Gendarmes, and  investigation of public funds trapped in failed and un-recapitalized Banks and the banking reforms among others.

Upon resumption, the lawmakers are expected to intervene in the prevailing wind of insecurity in the country ahead the 2011 polls. It is to be see whether or not the legislators would weather the storm successfully.