Ninth House and Her Fruitless Probes

The House of Representatives, in the last two years, embarked on a number of probes all of which are yet to yield results. Adedayo Akinwale reports

During his inaugural speech, Speaker, ninth House of Representatives, on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, said the Green Chamber under his leadership would be a House of reforms.He said the reforms would be dished out piecemeal and at intervals so as not to shock the system,pointing out that it would not be business as usual and would shake the table just a little.

“We will be introducing various reforms that will reposition this institution but please rest assured that they will be for the greater good. On our shoulders lie the responsibility of working together as a House to safeguard the future of our great country. The House must be reformed before the country can be reformed. We simply cannot and must not fail,” he said.

On October 11, 2019, the House launched a reform called the Legislative Agenda for the 9th National Assembly. The document said the agenda was a declaration of the House’s intent to serve Nigeria with dedication, focusing its considerable energies on those issues that mostly affect the lives of the citizens.

Flowing from the inaugural speech of the Speaker and the intent of the Legislative Agenda launched by the House, Nigerians were tempted to believe that it would not indeed be business as usual. Nigerians also hoped that the ninth House would be different from its predecessors, especially, as regards checking the excesses of the executive arm, while also preventing the looting or recovery of the commonwealth of the country.

Since 1999, the public has witnessed the parlaiment initiating probes into different sectors. The legislative arm is empowered by Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution, which authorises it to expose corruption, inefficiency and waste in government.

Over the years, Assembly after Assembly had conducted several sensational inves­tigations. Some of the probes were celebrated with screaming and sensational head­lines. More often than not, most of the cases were allegedly used as a bargaining chip by the lawmakers to get their own share of the looted funds.

One of the notable probes was the power probe of Arumah Oteh and recently the Niger Delta Development (NDDC) probe – the famous ‘off the mic’ drama.

Nigerians may wonder why all the probes by the parliament often ended on the pages of newspapers.It does appear the lawmakers use the probe as an avenue for bargaining.

It is an open secret that the various committees in the National Assembly while organising public hearings often ask the MDAs to sponsor advertorial in the newspaper and on television to create awareness and they are also asked to shoulder the financial burden of the main event, in spite of the fact that committees have budget for organising such events. Based on this, the legislative arm is perceived to have lost its respect and as such, has no toga of integrity to latch on.

All the Probes conducted have always been a ‘paddy-paddy’ probe all along since the return of democracy in the country. It is only when the heads of such MDAs refuse to cooperate that the lawmakers make it a point of duty to crucify the fellow on the pages of Newspapers and television.

When Gbajabiamila promised that the ninth House would be House of reforms, Nigerians thought there would be a departure from the past. However, most of the probes that have been carried out by the lawmakers in the ninth House have confirmed that the country is still neck-deep in the mess.

The deep involvement of lawmakers in the corruption allegation in cases, where they have investigated have led to the abrupt end of the various probes in the House, because it subsequently became the case of the hunter becoming the hunted.

The Arms Purchase Probe

The House set up an inquiry into the quality and quantity of arms and ammunition purchased for security agencies in the country in the last 10 years. The Green Chamber inaugurated the ad-hoc Committee mandated to review the purchase, use and control of arms, ammunition and related hardware by military, paramilitary and other law enforcement agencies.

The Chairman of the Committee, during the inauguration, Hon. Olaide Akinremi, claimed that “Nigeria spent an estimated sum of $47.387 million in arms importation by 2019”.

He added that the Committee would proceed to investigate the quality and quantity of arms and ammunition purchased in the last ten years by a clear inquest into the relevant tools and equipment, as well as ammunition as to whether evidence exists or not.

The ad-hoc committee had, at its last public sitting, told the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru to go back and prepare a comprehensive position for presentation to it, while also asking the Inspector General of Police to do same and report back to the Committee.

But the late Attahiru had told the committee to direct its enquiry at his predecessors, as he was not in office at the time the funds for arms were disbursed. Even before his untimely death, that was the end of the probe.

The $500m Chinese Loan

The House Committee on Treaties and Protocols recently launched an investigation into the $500 million loan from the Chinese government. The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, subsequently appealed to the National Assembly to halt its probe.

Amaechi during an investigative hearing by the Committee said the investigation being carried out by the National Assembly could frustrate the loan agreement between Nigeria and China on the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri rail project.

“We have the approval to construct the Lagos-Ibadan, Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Calabar rail lines. We are also at the point of negotiating for the loans. Summoning us to the National Assembly to come and address the loans would look like the government is no longer interested in the loan,” the minister had said.

N81bn NDDC Probe

The House also probed the alleged misuse of N81bn by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The probe, however, took a dramatic twist when the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, accused members of the National Assembly as being the most beneficiaries from the contracts from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). He also finģered the chairman of the committee.

While responding to questions at the investigative hearing, Akpabio said, “The NDDC plays a vital role in ensuring the peace and security of the region and 90% or more of the resources of the country comes from there. If you closed it down in totality all you will have is chaos. You will have a lot of, not just militancy, you will have a lot of insurrection.

“So it is important that people, who have gone to court, people who genuinely did jobs should be paid for their jobs. For me, I am not against it because, of course, who are even the greatest beneficiaries? It is you people.”

When a female lawmaker interrupted his presentation and asked what benefits the lawmakers get from the contracts, the minister said, “I just told you that we have records to show that most of the contracts in the NDDC are given out to members of the National Assembly.”

Earlier, then acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Kemebradikumo Pondei collapsed while being grilled by the lawmakers.

Gbajabiamila’s Legislative Manouvre

After the disgraceful outing of the committee probing NDDC missing N81 billion and other probes that have achieved no success, the House on August 19 announced the suspension of all activities of its committees.

Leader of the House, Hon. Alhassan Doguwa said, the leadership of the House had met and resolved that henceforth, all activities of standing and ad-hoc committees be put on hold while the house was on its annual recess.

“Accordingly, all standing and ad hoc committee chairmen are hereby directed to suspend with immediate effect, all committee meetings, public hearings and other engagements until the house resumes from its annual recess,” he said.

How PDP Reacted to Probes Suspension

Following the suspension of the committee, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Speaker of frustrating corruption investigations. In a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP said the decision to shut down the sitting of various committees carrying out investigations was a deliberate design to cover the stench of corruption oozing out of the APC administration.

The party said such interference in the activities of the committees was to quench the fight against corruption as well as frustrate whistleblowers because “APC has become an ocean of corruption where the members are swimming.

“It is clear that the shutdown directive is targeted at frustrating revelations from ongoing investigations on the $500 million foreign loan from China, particularly as it relates to the mortgaging of our nation’s sovereignty to China.”

The PDP described such action as calamitous to Nigeria’s democracy and charged Gbajabiamila to stop circumventing the statutory duties of the House and placing of wedges in the way of the fight against corruption by the legislature”.

Nevertheless, despite the failure of the various committees of the ninth House to recover mismanaged and stolen monies through various probes, as well as the sudden death of the committees investigating one agency or the other due to some lawmakers’ complicity, mountains of probes are still pending in the House while some are ongoing.

Despite the promise by Gbajabiamila that the ninth House would be a reformed House, it has not been able to break from the pack of the previous Assemblies. If anything, some members of the present ninth House Assembly have turned the supposed ‘House of reform’ to ‘House of returns’.