3 years of legislation: How has the House of Reps fared?

The current 8th assembly of the House of Representatives officially clocked three years over the weekend, precisely on June 9, 2018.
But how has the assembly fared over this period? JOSHUA EGBODO in this piece x-rays the issues.
Shaky start To many Nigerians, the current assembly of the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who against many odds emerged as presiding officer of the lower legislative chamber of the National Assembly, may not have performed so badly.
Dogara from the onset was not in the picture of the speakership position as far as the political party; the All Progressives Congress (APC) under which platform he got elected for the third time, as member of the House, representing the Bogoro/ Dass/Tafawa-Balewa Federal Constituency of Bauchi State.
His emergence on June 9, 2015 against his party’s favoured candidate and opponent in the election, Femi Gbajabialmila at the initial take-off slowed down the legislative business of the House.
It took a lot of horse trading for calm to be restored.
Rising to the occasion When normalcy was restored, many commended the Speaker as having the courage and spirit of concession, to steer the House out of those initial storms, including issues surrounding the constitution of heads of special and standing committees of the House.
However, the seeming calm in the House was almost truncated with the 2017 budget padding allegations by Dogara’s erstwhile ally and then chairman of the committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin.
He was later to be slammed with a suspension for a period of 180 legislative sitting days, for what the House described as “bringing the integrity of the House to disrepute”.
Since the Jibrin’s budget padding saga, the House to many followers of the national parliament has enjoyed relative stability, more with the absence of the usual banana peels, and fraud related scandals, even though Jibrin’s allegations were yet, subjects of running litigations.
To such analysts, Dogara has so far steered a stable House.
Highest number of bills On the general performance of the House, it has been considered as the assembly with the highest numbers of Bills passed, with even a unique record breaking passage of over a hundred Bills in just a sitting.
Giving insights into its performance, Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, at briefing to mark the third anniversary of the current House last week, announced that the House in the last three years, successfully passed 222 Bills.
“In the last three years in office, we have introduced 1,473 bills and 90 of the bills were on constitutional amendment.
A total of 519 of the bills are awaiting second reading while 284 bills have been referred to various committees of the House.
“One hundred and twelve bills are awaiting consideration and 222 bills have been successfully passed by the 8th House of Representatives”, he said, adding that there were 22 negatived through votes of members in the period, while 23 others were withdrawn by leave of the House.
There have been insinuations that rift between the parliament and the executive arm of the federal government appeared to be widening by the day, but according to Namdas, the opinion may not be totally true, as the House in all considerations, always put national interest first, citing how it worked very closely with the executive to bring the country out of recession, recalling also how it organised special sectoral debate on the matter, during which participants brainstormed on the way out of the recession.
Legalising youth politics He said that the popular Not-TooYoung-to-Run Bill, now an Act of the National Assembly, was a product of the 8th House, adding that the North-East Development Commission Act was also a product of a Bill, personally introduced by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
He agreed that though a lot of resolutions, numbering over 1,000 have been passed by the current House, without much compliance by the government agencies concerned, he was optimistic that the House will not relent in passing legislative instruments for the good of Nigeria.
“In the next one year, we shall ensure that we double our efforts to ensure that Nigerians get the dividends of democracy.
We shall ensure that good laws to help the executive are made for the good of the country,” he stated”.
Ajaokuta Steel resurrection Dogara’s recent personal oversight visit to the Ajaokuta Steel Company has been considered by many as a unique feat by the leadership of the lower legislative chamber over the years.
While the visit has led to a Special Bill to have the company completed, still undergoing legislative process in the federal parliament, experts in the sector were of the opinion that the singular act was a demonstration that the House cared for the economy.
The outlined performances, though not exhaustive while to many were fair enough, others query, especially while juxtaposing such performances with the resources deployed to cater for the running costs of members.
But with the promises to double efforts, it is hoped that more beneficial laws are prioritized in the remaining year of the House’s tenure.