Leon Usigbe & Tordue Salem
11 July 2008
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole has relieved the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Festus Adegoke of his appointment in a move seen as a fall-out of the recent attempt to unseat the Speaker.
Many members had also blamed him for the hiccups that bedevilled the consideration of the 2008 Appropriation Bill by the House.
Hon. Adegoke's sack was announced at yesterday's plenary by Hon. Bankole who simply gave a terse statement to the members without divulging the reason for the sack but named his replacement as Hon. Ayo Adeseun representing Ogoluwa/Surulere Federal Constituency of Oyo State.
The former committee chairman who represents Ebgeda/Ono-Ara Federal constituency of Oyo State had been appointed along with the about 70 other standing committee chairmen by the former Speaker, Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh who he supported stridently in the days of the N628million contract saga.
In the last few weeks, it was reported that some of the former Speaker's loyalists in the House had re-grouped and were discussing the possibility of changing the leadership of the House over what they claimed was the poor leadership style of Hon. Bankole.
This led to a closed door session of the House about two weeks ago where the issue was tabled for debate and supposedly resolved.
However, the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public affairs, Hon. Eziuche Ubani had blamed the tension that arose IN THE House over the incident on the desire of some committee chairmen to retain their positions as the Speaker intended to re-organize the committees.
Meanwhile, a Bill for an Act for the yearly submission of report by the President to the National Assembly on the implementation of Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy as contained in the 1999 Constitution has passed through second reading in the House.
The Bill sponsored by the chairman of the House Committee on Public Petitions, Hon. Cyril Maduabum seeks to make it compulsory for the President to report to the National Assembly not later than March every year on his efforts in satisfying the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.
While leading the debate on the Bill, Hon. Maduabum told the members that its passage would make the Federal Government more accountable to the people.
According to him, "the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not later than March 31 every year, prepare and lay before each House of the National Assembly a report on his activities and the activities of all the ministries, extra ministerial departments and agencies of the Executive arm of the Federal Government on all steps, efforts and actions taken by them to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of each clause in every section of Chapter II of the Constitution from January 1 to December 31 of the preceding year."
He stated that the President shall ensure in his report to the National Assembly that the allocation of resources and fiscal and financial affairs of the Federal Government of Nigeria conformed to the principles and philosophy of government mandated by Chapter II of the Constitution.
In opposing the motion, Hon. Andrew Uchendu representing Ikwere Federal Constituency of Rivers State argued that the annual budget presented to the National Assembly already served the purpose advocated by the Bill saying what was needed to ensure that the President went beyond "casualization" of his overview of the preceding year.
However, the Bill sailed through second reading with an overwhelming voice vote after which Speaker Dimeji Bankole refered to the Joint Committees on Governmental Affairs and Justice for further consideration.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
