Inside Nigeria Politics: 10 hottest fight and controversies of the National Assembly

The two chambers of the National Assembly recorded 10 major controversies in the first legislative year. Daily Trust takes  a look.

The controversies involveding the presiding officers of the two chambers, senators, House members and even bureaucrats at the National Assembly are many.
Starting with Senate President Bukola Saraki, to Speaker Yakubu Dogara and some of the federal lawmakers, the boat of the controversies sailed through the red and green chambers, denting the image of the legislative arm of government.

From all indications, the controversies will be carried over to the second legislative session next month when the lawmakers resume from annual recess on September 20, 2016.

Saraki’s boat of controversies
Saraki broke the record to become the first sitting Senate President to be docked. He was docked twice, first at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and later at an Abuja High Court.
He has been enmeshed in controversy since his emergence as the Senate President in June 2015. He has a case at the CCT over false assets declaration while he was governor of Kwara State.
Also, Saraki was docked alongside the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; the outgone Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa; and Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Ben Efeturi, over forging of the Senate rules.
Angered by the forgery suit, the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, was summoned by the lawmakers but he created a scene when he appeared before them. Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) told the members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters that their rules were illegally altered.
Again, when the Panama scandal broke, Saraki was mentioned as it was alleged that four of his assets were tucked away in secret offshore territories, an allegation he has since refuted through his media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu. The case is currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Melaye/Tinubu’s dirty fight
The quarrel between Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) and the Chairman Senate Committee on Environment, Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos Central) also exposed the Upper Chamber to disrepute.
At an executive session in July, the duo engaged in a war of words that almost resulted in a fight. The story of the “unparliamentary” words of the duo went viral on social media and took over the air waves and newspapers.
Protests and counter-protests trailed the drama as women and other groups took to the streets in various parts of the country, including at the National Assembly. 
Buying SUVs at twice the price
In the face of economic recession, the Senate bought 108 Toyota Land Cruiser Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) at twice the market price for disbursement to Senators.
In April, the Senate took delivery of 36 out of the 108 vehicles, which have since been disbursed to the lawmakers. Following the uproar that trailed the purchase, nothing has been heard about the remaining 72.
Saraki and N/Assembly budget details
Weeks after his emergence, Senate President Bukola Saraki pledged to make the details of the controversial budget of National Assembly available for public scrutiny.
The National Assembly budget, which was N23.347billion in 2003 went up to as much as N150bn for four years (2010 to 2013) but was slashed to N120bn in 2014 and N115bn in 2015 and 2016.
Details of the federal lawmakers budget was taken away from public glare under the leadership of the immediate past Senate President, David Mark, and over one year into the life of the Eighth Senate, Saraki is yet to fulfil this pledge. 
Saraki has however, through his media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu, blamed the National Assembly bureaucrats over the delay.
CNA battle: Fika defeats Saraki
In April, the chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, Dr Adamu Fika, locked horn with Saraki over the position of the Clerk to the National Assembly.
When Fika announced the appointment of Mr. Mohammed Sani-Omolori as the CNA, Saraki objected it and directed that it should be reversed. He announced Mr. Ben Efeturi as his preferred candidate.
The battle lingered for weeks but Fika had his way as Sani-Omolori has since taken over as the substantive CNA. 
In the House of Representatives, the first biggest controversy that almost marred the smooth taking off of the green chamber was the leadership crisis that raged for about two months from June 9, when the House was inaugurated, to July 28, 2015.
The controversy came as a power tussle between the then newly-elected Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and his then main challenger and now House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila. Dogara had initially refused to announce Gbajabiamila as House leader against the directive of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). This led to a bedlam on the floor of the House on June 24, which forced Dogara to adjourn the House abruptly indefinitely.
However, peace returned to the House on July 28 when Dogara yielded to pressure and made Gbajabiamila House Leader; Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Chief Whip; Buba Jibril, deputy House leader and Pally Iriase as deputy chief whip.
Hiring bloated aides
Another controversy that raged silently in the National Assembly was the hiring of a large number of aides embarked upon by Saraki, Dogara, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and Deputy Speaker, Yussuf Suleimon Lasun, in an attempt to satisfy political friends and associates, especially those that played key role in their emergence.
Saraki reportedly hired over 112 aides, Dogara about 170, Ekweremadu 60 and Lasun 58.
This compelled the National Assembly management of the National Assembly to write a letter to the four presiding officers to reduce the number of their aides, or better still demote some, as most of them were hired on higher levels.
Budget Controversy
Perhaps, the biggest controversy since the inauguration of the Eighth Assembly was, and still is, that of the 2016 Budget. 
First, after the resumption of members from their Christmas break in January this year, reports emerged that the budget got ‘missing’. The issue became so pronounced that at some point, Saraki confirmed that the budget was actually ‘missing’.
While the nation was still grappling with the news of the missing budget, reports emerged that there were at least two versions of the budget in circulation with different contents.
Again, during budget defence by various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), some ministers raised alarm that their ministries’ budget proposals with the various committees of the parliament were not the documents they presented. In particular, the ministers of agriculture and health denied the budget proposals being dealt with at the time by the relevant committees.
The budget controversy got to its climax with the president’s refusal to sign it into law, and instead demanded that certain changes be made. It was eventually signed into law on May 6.
Prisons personnel assaults female Rep
On April 20, a Senior Prisons Officer, Mr Idah Odeh, allegedly assaulted a female lawmaker, Rep Joan Onyemaechi Mrakpor (PDP, Delta) after she reportedly blocked his principal’s convoy. This generated a lot of controversy.
The House consequently passed a motion, summoning the then Comptroller General of Prisons, Peter Ekpendu, as well as the policemen and DSS personnel attached to the National Assembly and some men of the Sergeant-at-Arms to appear before the committee on Interior and clear their names.
Appearing before the committee, Ekpendu said his vehicles had passed when the incident took place, adding that it was the vehicles of two of his deputies that were involved in the incident.
In the end, the committee recommended Idah’s demotion and that all the other security officers involved should be sanctioned appropriately.
Jibrin/Dogara budget padding scandal
In the wake of the removal of the former chairman of the House committee on appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, on July 20, a major scandal broke out, where the lawmaker accused Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun, Chief Whip Ado Doguwa and minority leader Leo Ogor, of perpetrating corruption in the budget.
In his first set of allegations on July 21, Jibrin said “Lately, I openly disagreed with some principal officers on the issue of immunity for lawmakers and budget issues. I still maintain I will never support immunity.”
He said the quartet “were not comfortable with my independent disposition and refusal to cover up their unilateral decision to allocate to themselves N40bn out of the N100bn allocated to the entire National Assembly.
“My inability to admit into the budget almost N30bn personal requests from Mr Speaker and the 3 other principal officers also became an issue.”
Since then, Jibrin has been running from one security agency to the other petitioning them on the matter. Jibrin himself reportedly allocated projects worth N4.3bn to his Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State and allegedly tampered with the reports of many of the House committees on the budget.
However, the House leadership said that while it was determined to ensure that absolute diligence, maturity and due process were employed in dealing with the allegations, “instead of joining the accuser in a press war, it is important to state, in the interest of the agitated public, that the allegations are wild, baseless and unfounded. 
“Furthermore, the decision to relieve the erstwhile Appropriation Chairman of his position was a collective decision of the leadership in response to unrelenting pressures from the overwhelming majority of Honorable Members who were irked by the former chairman’s gross abuse of the budget process. Both actions were taken in the best interest of the institution and the nation for which we take full responsibility.”
Huge debts amidst huge budget
News recently broke that the National Assembly was facing serious financial crunch due to the huge debts it incurred running into billions of naira.
The debts were owed contractors for the supply of office facilities, lawmakers’ vehicles and maintenance costs among others. The contractors and suppliers were said to be grumbling over the inability of the National Assembly management to settle the accumulated debts.
Due to the debt situation, the National Assembly management was forced to take cost-cutting measures, including slashing the salaries of legislative aides by about 70 per cent and taking inventory of the debts.
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