By EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor
I am open to correction but I believe from my study of Nigeria’s serving federal legislators that the former NTA , Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa is about one of the most accomplished of the lot. She has, in my opinion, followed in the path of some other professional journalists like Chief Nduka Irabor and Senator Smart Adeyemi in representing their constituents and making a landmark in the National Assembly.

The Freedom of Information Act which was initially co-sponsored by Irabor, Dr. Jerry Ugwoke among others was brought to a successful legislative anchor by Dabiri-Erewa in the last legislative session. Besides that and her salutary stewardship of first, the House Committee on Media and then committee on Diaspora, I am aware of several legislative interventions she initiated to better the lives of her people in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

It is in that light that I find constructively interesting the political crisis that arose from the alleged decision of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN leader in the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila to block the appointment of Dabiri-Erewa and another Lagos lawmaker, Jumoke Thomas as committee chairmen.

Both ladies were reportedly stopped because they were not completely loyalto Gbajabiamila who according to one report wanted them to come crawling like many other legislators to him.

Beyond that claim is also the fact not known to many people that Dabiri-Erewa was one of the alleged main backers of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal’s rival for the leadership, Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola. However, given Tambuwal’s reconciliatory gestures it is unlikely that he, Tambuwal, would have moved against Dabiri-Erewa on that point which has given the Gbajabiamila factor some credence.

However, the interesting thing for me is the issue being made of the fact that the former NTA girl, with all her experience and qualities could be sidelined by the House leadership in the appointment of committee positions. That need not be an issue. Committee positions in the Senate and in the House of Representatives should ordinarily not bar a committed legislator from his duties. After all, Dabiri-Erewa did not need to be chairman of the Information committee to push the FOI Act.

The committee system was originally conceived to enable the legislature closely oversight the executive branch of government. It thus goes to reason that the party in the majority should be able to guide the affairs of parliament in a way as to provide a robust support or constructive opposition to the party in control of the executive. It is for this reason that in most democracies, the party in control of parliament provides leadership of the committees.

Here however, the committee system in the National Assembly has been totally debased to the extent that committees have become a means of dispensing patronage and liberalizing corruption. It is to that extent that since 1999, jostling for committee positions, notably “juicy” committees as they are called, have stoked majority of the insurrections in the National Assembly.

The late Senator Mamman Ali, who later became governor of Yobe State is believed to have championed the insurrection against Senator Chuba Okadigbo after Okadigbo dropped him from the “juicy” Senate Committee on Public Accounts.

It is interesting that opposition parties who flay the PDP for its perceived shortcomings do not mind holding sensitive positions in the PDP controlled National Assembly.

Apart from the traditional position of the chairman of Public Accounts Committee, normally reserved for the opposition for the purpose of keeping the government in check, I find no reason why opposition parties should be scrambling for committee chairmanships.

In the United States Senate and Congress, the majority party controls all the chairmanships and the issue of ranking is well spelt out in the committees. The ranking Democrat, whenever Democrats control either chamber automatically becomes the chairman and slips back to ranking Democrat or opposition leader whenever the party loses control of the chamber.

The opposition members of parliament would serve Nigeria better if they jettison aspirations to “juicy” committee positions and sit up as constructive opposition legislators in parliament, deciphering the intents and purposes of the administration’s fiscal and policy measures. Unfortunately for the nation, not many legislators would toe that path of honour. Senator Saidu Dansadau was one who resigned his chairmanship position in the Anyim Senate based on principle.

Many more men of principle are needed in the two chambers!