By Kemi Yesufu, Abuja

All eyes are on the House of Representatives as the National Assembly resumes today from its eight-week annual vacation. No thanks to budget padding scandal which dominated discussion among Nigerians almost on daily basis for the past two months, many will be looking to see how this brouhaha will pan out.
Undoubtedly, members of the House looked forward to the annual vacation of the National Assembly. But not a few would agree that in the case of members of the House, rather than fully resting, they had to deal with the outpouring of condemnation that followed allegations of the illegal tinkering of the budget by ousted House chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin. Indeed as lawmakers get back to work today, observers would agree that Jibrin kept to his vow of the vacation of House beginning and ending with the budget padding scandal which his allegations triggered. Even during the holidays, lawmakers thronged the National Assembly and other locations for meetings to take decisions on who to support in the raging battle between Jibrin, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun, Majority Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor. The former chairman has not relented in accusing the four members of the House leadership whom he has dubbed the quartet of taking for themselves N40 billion out of the N100 billion allocated for constituency projects in the 2016 budget.
The Kano lawmaker also accused Dogara, Lasun, Doguwa and Ogor of using 10 Standing Committees to insert fictitious projects totalling N284 billion. While Lasun has not made any statement on the allegations, Dogara, Doguwa and Ogor have taken turns to deny Jibrin’s allegations, describing them as baseless. The ex-chairman managed to list nine out of the 10 Committees which he said were used to illegally insert the 2000 projects. According to him, the Police Affairs,  Interior, F.C.T,  Health Services, Basic Education, Power, House Services, Public Petitions and Marine Transport were the committees used to bring -in fictitious projects.
While many would agree that some of the lawmakers Jibrin listed might have been intimidated into silence by his strongly worded statements and tweets, three of those he named as making their committees available to put in illegal projects, Jagaba Adams Jagaba (Kaduna -APC), Chike Okafor (Imo-APC) and Zakari Mohammed (Kwara -APC) have at different times responded to him, saying he is the one guilty of mutilating the budget and not them. Jibrin  has also been accused of inserting projects worth N4.1 billion into his Bebeji/Kiru Federal Constituency, with the insertion of high-sounding projects including the Kano film village, named after President Muhammadu Buhari and what the House Spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas described as the former chairman’s record of blackmailing heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for pecuniary gains as the reasons why he was removed.
Though Jibrin didn’t mention House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, the documents he released showed that, Gbajabiamila’s Surulere  I Federal Constituency received projects worth about N1.8 billion in the budget. To the bewilderment of millions of Nigerians, the lawmaker who has since written his colleagues a long letter advising that they insist that Dogara and Lasun step down, declared that he received N650 million as office running cost for the years he has worked as legislator, just as all ten of the House principal officers have received N10 billion under the same sub-head.
Daily Sun investigation showed that Jibrin’s letter rather than sway support his way led to the strengthening of the resolve of pro-Dogara lawmakers who have vowed he will be sanctioned. Close observers of the power play in the House believe that today could just be the beginning of Jibrin’s walk to suspension. It is safe to say Dogara enjoys much more support among his colleagues and some of those backing the Speaker could go physical if provoked, the same for those standing against him. Many expect, at the least a war of words today and verbal fireworks in the days that will follow. Some will be watching to see if Jibrin will be bold enough to come to green chambers today as there still hasn’t been a drastic change in his level of popularity. He was twice booed by his colleagues even as his explanations on the role he played in the whole budget saga seem not to have changed the disposition of members towards him.
Daily Sun investigation also point to majority of lawmakers seeking an end to the budget padding scandal in order for the House to move on. Because of this,  the entire scenario may end up being a case of the majority having their way with the minority having their say. The Transparency Group, though likely to protest any motion on the floor targeted at suspending the embattled former chairman, seem to have accepted the reality that they are seriously outnumbered. A member of the group, Abubakar Chika (Niger-APC) said this much.
Chika in a telephone interview with Daily Sun said: “We have made our position on the issue of budget padding public and petitions and submissions have been made to relevant anti-graft agencies, the Nigerian Police and other security agencies. They can now take action. One thing I know is that politics is a game of numbers and those of us who are on the side of Nigerians, the Transparency Group, do not have the numerical strength to pass a -vote -of -no confidence on the Speaker, following which he would have stepped down”.
Supporters of the Speaker such as Timothy Golu (Plateau-PDP) insist that lawmakers will in the days to come concentrate on issues of national importance, starting with the economic recession and its negative impact on millions of Nigerians. Golu who is chairman, House committee on National Assembly Budget and Research said the House will invite ministers, heads of agencies and Special Advisers to explain how the country can rebound from the economic downturn. “As we resume, we will be discussing the economic recession which is biting harder. We will do it using the instrumentality of our responsibility of oversighting the implementation of the budget. We have to find out what is happening with the implementation of the 2016 budget. The Federal Government said it has released money before and is about to release another N350 billion. We expect that to happen soon so that the economy can be lubricated”.
He also disclosed that the House will be inviting the Special Adviser to the president for Social Protection Plan, Maryam Uwais to explain how far government has gone with the implementation of the intervention. Golu further said the House will concentrate on preparations for the 2017 budget. “As a committee, we invited the Special Adviser to the president on the social intervention fund; we weren’t satisfied with her explanations. In fact, we got worried during our interaction because she raised fears on the release of the monies needed for the programme. She said so far, only N20 billion out of N500 billion has been released and this is without cash backing and we are in September.  For us, we raised fears on how realistic this programme is judging by the economy of the country and the issue of the programme not having an implementation framework especially with regard to its five components. We don’t want this intervention to end up like those done in the past, where people are given money without having a plan for a sustainable income. We want a proper implementation of the programme; this starts with release of funds with cash backing for programmes that will have direct impact on the lives of people”.
Another issue the House will prioritise as it resumes is the review of the 1999 constitution. The House has adopted the piecemeal approach to the review.
The most recent development from the Lasun- led special Ad hoc Committee on the review of the 1999 constitution is sponsoring a bill which provides that “no person who had held office of president or governor of a state or acting as president or governor of a state for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected president or governor, shall be elected to the office of President or governor of a state more than once”. The aim of the bill which has scaled the first reading on the floor of the House is to give constitutional protection to the two term tradition.
By virtue of the combined provisions of sections 137(1)(b) and 182(1)(b) of the constitution, the president of Nigeria and governor of a state shall serve in those capacities for a maximum period of eight years. However, the constitution equally envisaged circumstances where a person can be chosen to act as president or governor.  These include: when the president or a governor resigns, dies or is impeached. If the bill is passed, when a person is chosen to act as president or governor of a state and the person serves for more than two years in a four years term, that person shall only be eligible to contest election to the same office only once.
It is also learnt that the House version of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will be presented now that members have resumed. Dogara had assured that the National Assembly will engage with stakeholders on contentious issues surrounding the bill. Speaking at the National Stakeholders Summit on Petroleum Industry Reforms held in Abuja,  Dogara said the legislature is determined to draft a law for the industry that will be in the best interest of Nigerians.
He said: “The need to make consensus and lend a voice to long suppressed agitations in the drafting and consideration of petroleum industry bills informed our decision to organise this stakeholders’ summit. We are optimistic that this approach will provide the crucial platform to enable us cross pollinate ideas and ventilate our positions on certain contentious issues, regardless how vexed they may be. You can rest assured that our work at the National Assembly is to do your good intention.
“We are not unaware of the several failed attempts at redeeming the petroleum industry by our predecessors. The Petroleum Industry Bill has been down a long, tortuous, and chequered road. Most of us have been co-travelers on the journey to pass the bill into law, and have the requisite experience to avoid any pitfalls ahead, hence this resolve to seek proper consultations with you and build confidence amongst us.”

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