For a Better Funded House of Reps, By Yakubu Mantu
POLITICS DIGEST – From the inception of the current democratic dispensation, the National Assembly remains the hardest bashed arm of government. The occupiers of the legislative complex in Abuja have had to deal with well entrenched perception of earning jumbo pay more than other functionaries in the other two arms of government, the executive and legislature.
Lawmakers’ predicament is even more compounded as many Nigerians only relate and rate performance of public office holders in terms of tangible infrastructure they facilitated. Meanwhile, the National Assembly which serves as the bastion of democracy and enabler of sort is perceived as not as important as other arms.
The annual budget of the National Assembly which comprises emoluments of aides and other career civil servants attached to the legislative institution remains a sensational and topical issue.
Contrary to the misconception out there, the House of Representatives is struggling financially. This was aptly captioned by the chairman House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu who spoke with journalists ahead of the launch of House of Representatives publication called “Green Chamber Magazine”.
“What you will see as the production outcome is the personal effort and sacrifice of these men sitting with me. They made personal contributions to enable us to get to this level of work we have put into this thing”, he said of the coming of the magazine.
He added that “Even the Speaker is also struggling with money. I was with him, he personally edited many aspects of the magazine, because he’s very passionate about seeing the House tell it’s one story as they are, so the Speaker had to be personally involved.
“But the truth of the matter is that this House that you’re seeing is broke. You’re here for briefing and microphones are not working, because there’s no money to fix them. Committees can’t carry out oversight functions as they should because there’s no money.
“Air-conditioning in your press centre are not working because there’s no money to fix or replace them. So let Nigerians know that we need more money to do their work, and that what we’re currently getting is not adequate for optimal performance”.
I could not agree less with Kalu. In the United Kingdom for instance, there is an annual budget for parliamentary journal and publications that help in documenting legislative activities for posterity and dissemination of information as regard the activities of the lawmakers in the parliament.
Everywhere in the world, legislature doesn’t solely depend on the media to tell its stories. The media for reason best known tend to downplay strides in the hollowed chamber and get fixated with inanities that often portrays the lawmakers in not too good light.
For instance, the Nigerian media never put in public domain that a total of 679 bills have been passed through this current House, and 278 motions have been moved as at last week.
The non-reportage of such commendable feat contributes to the woeful perception that House members are just lazy folks who milking the nation’s treasury with corresponding labour. Far from it, unknown to many Nigerians, the House of Representatives has been at the vanguard of exposing sleaze in the Ministries, Department and Agencies, MDAs.
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Through their painstaking oversight functions, the House especially under the leadership of Rt. Hon Femi Gbajabiamila has kept an eagle eye on the budgets and also verify outrageous claims of MDAs.
No doubt, there is need for better funding of the House of Representatives for them to discharge their duty without fear and compromise. In the same vein, the House of Representatives as the eyes and ears of their constituents often fight to protect the interest of the masses.
Speaker Gbajabiamila has been championing the struggle to end the obnoxious estimated billings and asked the government to order the electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to meter all their customers and charge people what they actually consume. Not unfair and outrageous crazy bills.
Legislative business often requires the services of specialists whose services don’t come cheap. For instance, in the United States Congress, there are budgets for experts’ services whose professional inputs will the sought in drafting bills, reviewing of bills and in enactment of Acts for different technical sectors.
In fact, scholars from ivy league universities like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford are contracted to work on bills and peruse the legislative piece with the lens of a scholar.
That is what makes United States of America laws all-encompassing and effective.
For instance, if the House of Representatives desires to review the Act establishing the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, there will need to hire the services of experts likely from abroad because of the critical nature of the aviation sector.
The House members cannot depend on the everyday knowledge or layman’s information they gleaned from Google to enact a law that will stand the scrutiny of best global practice.
The administrative cost of the House of Representatives cannot be run on a shoe-string budget and expect world-class and well researched laws. Nigeria must show commitment to the sustainability of our institutions and sectors by voting sufficient funds to the House to discharge its duty outstandingly.
Just as the House spokesman noted when he hinted on the launch Green Chamber Magazine, ”The perception of the House of Representatives has not been too good a thing, and we are not what the public sees us to be, perception-wise, and as you know, perception is not fact.
“So we need this (Green Chamber Magazine) to tell our stories by ourselves. If you hear from the horse’s mouth you are going believe the integrity of the stories more than what a third party can give to you”, Kalu added.
President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed also echoed the same well entrenched perception during the launch of the Green Chamber Magazine.
He said, “Hitherto, the public perception of the National Assembly is that of a bicameral legislature where overly comfortable and highly-overpaid members merely stuff wads of currency notes into their pockets for little work done. This wrong perception has resulted partly from the lack of understanding of the enormous work of lawmakers, especially outside the glare of television cameras.
“But with a magazine that will be the authoritative source of anything that goes on in the House – motions being moved, bills being passed, national issues being discussed and constituency projects – the public will be better informed on the activities of the House, and this will in turn reflect in an improved public perception.
“In addition, it will help the House to tell its own story, rather than relying on others to take charge of their narrative. It is said that no one can tell your story better than you.”
Mantu writes from Kaduna.
