The 9th House of Representatives officially ended its 2020 legislative session at a special plenary on Monday, December 21, with a resolution that its 2021 phase will commence on January 26. Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila reeled out key achievements of the lower chamber of the National Assembly, even in a year that is considered globally, very challenging in all ramifications. JOSHUA EGBODO writes on some of the issues
Beginning the year on a shaky note
Early in 2020, news filtered in from around the world about the emergence in China of a new deadly virus, medically named coronavirus, and its incidental disease as COVID-19. Like all institutions, the House of Representatives and by extension, the National Assembly was in panic. The world economy was badly challenged. On this, Gbajabiamila recalled that “When we resumed in January of this year, the coronavirus was a novel development, still confined for the most part to China.
“We did not know that our economy would be upended in a few months, and our lives disrupted by a pandemic we did not anticipate and were not prepared for. We did not foresee a world where citizens would be confined to their homes for months, unable to earn a living, denied the freedom to live full lives in the company of friends and colleagues, family and loved ones. Yet when the moment came, we did not shrink from it”.
Reps’ emergency interventions
With the fresh realities occasioned by the pandemic, the House of Representatives offered some emergency interventions. The speaker in his Monday’s speech also recalled that “Within the limits of our brutal realities, with our options limited by a scarcity of resources, by dilapidated infrastructure and outdated laws, we acted to slow the spread of disease, to treat the sick, comfort the afflicted and provide for the most vulnerable of our nation’s citizens.
“The truth is, we have done better than many believed was possible, better than many nations, even the most advanced. Our economy has taken a big hit, but through partnership with the private sector, the government has been able to prevent the nightmare scenarios that some predicted.
“Members of the House, together and individually, made financial contributions to support welfare provisions for citizens. There is virtually no constituency in the country that did not feel the impact of efforts by their representatives. I commend you all, and I thank you most sincerely”,Gbajabiamila said.
Lamentable failure of the economic stimulus bill
With all efforts possible through whatever acceptable means, the House prior to entry of the incident case of the coronavirus into Nigeria, initiated the economic stimulus bill, which it passed on the same day. The proposal was, however, never signed into law. The speaker said, “In an unprecedented single-day session, we passed the Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill to provide targeted economic relief in response to the emerging threat. We did this before the coronavirus breached our borders because we anticipated and sought to prevent the worst possible outcomes.
“That legislation never became law. Yet the Bill’s specific objectives have been implemented through executive action to defer mortgages, remove duties on medical imports, provide salary relief and related financial support for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country.
Controversy of the infectious diseases control bill
Sponsored by personally by Gbajabiamila himself as one of the intervention moves, a bill seeking measures to effect control on the spread of infectious diseases became a subject on intense controversy, more because of some compulsive clauses which in the wider opinion of rights activists were in clearly in breach of citizens fundamental human rights. In the extremes, the House was accused of receiving gratifications from some foreign interests to force the law on Nigerians. Some backtracking was later made to douse the tension.
“Despite an extraordinary torrent of misinformation and political mischief, the House moved forward with landmark legislation to reform our nation’s obsolete statutory framework for preventing and managing infectious diseases and pandemics so that we can be better prepared for the next time.
“We worked with the Executive to address medical doctors and healthcare workers’ welfare demands and resolve a labour dispute that would have resulted in strike actions and walkouts with devastating consequences for too many of our citizens, amid a raging and deadly pandemic. Because of the House of Representatives, “Hazard Allowance” became part of the medical and pandemic lexicon. The intervention by the House elevated the welfare of healthcare workers to a ministerial issue and saw to it that these hazard allowances were provided for and paid”, the speaker boasted.
New approaches
The House subsequently adopted fresh approaches to its legislative business, in view of the new norm by making adjustments to its earlier designed legislative agenda. “We recognised that governance in a time of uncertainty required us to change the way we conduct legislative business. So, we reviewed and updated our Legislative Agenda to focus on critical priorities. And for the first time, we appointed a Committee to drive Monitoring and Implementation of our Agenda”, the speaker said on Monday.
Uniqueness of 2020
In all spheres of human endeavours, it has been widely accepted that 2020 provided unique challenges. Beyond the coronavirus pandemic, the nation was faced with the #EndSARS protests, which left its indelible scars, and compounded by lingering cases of insecurity. Gbajabiamila confirmed these by saying “we cannot escape the hard truth that this has been a tough year of suffering for too many citizens, a year like none before it. If we learned nothing else, we learned that we have a limited window to address problems that have been a long time in the making.
“This year we have seen that the structural inadequacies of our economy and healthcare systems, our internal security and justice architecture, have left us dangerously exposed to the risk of a complete and irreversible loss of faith in the Nigerian project by a large section of our citizenry.
“The risks we face are not abstract. In the aftermath of the EndSARS protests, we saw it in the flames that engulfed our cities. We saw it two weeks ago in Zarbamari with the massacre of citizens farming for survival, and most recently in the abduction of young boys seeking to improve their lives through education in Kankara”.
January-December budget cycle sustained
In a seemingly desperate bid to assure Nigerians that the promise of having the returned Januray-December budget cycle is sustained, the House for two weeks, suspended its plenary session for its standing committees to focus on the 2021 budget engagements with MDAs. More suspensions in days were to follow when it was obvious that the timeline was not feasible Responding to concerns that speed to meet up with the promise may affect quality of the outcome, the House repeatedly denied the assertions.
“Over the last two months, we have been occupied primarily with our efforts to complete our work on the 2021 Appropriation Bill in time to ensure the budget becomes law before the end of this year. We have worked with the Federal Government’s ministries, departments, and agencies to set priorities. We reached out to stakeholders and citizen groups. We liaised with constituents to understand their expectations and reflect those expectations in our consideration of the Appropriation Bill.
“I am glad to report that these efforts have been worthwhile. Today, we passed the budget in the House of Representatives in good time to maintain the January to December budget cycle in line with the commitments we made when we resumed office. The January to December budget cycle is necessary to ensure effective implementation of our annual budgets to meet our nation’s development challenges. By our joint efforts and the grace of God, we will maintain this standard for every year we are in office, and leave a legacy for our successors to aspire to”, Gbajabiamila said after passage of the budget.
Surprising jerk-up
With the concerns of the lingering economic recession, many Nigerians were up in thoughts that the budget figure of about N13.08 trillion presented by President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2021 fiscal year may be reduced, report of the committee on appropriations which the House adopted on Monday proved otherwise. The budget was up by over N500 billion, with an aggregate expenditure of N13.588 trillion passed for next year.
Justification for increase
Addressing newsmen after the budget passage, spokesman of the House, Benjamin Kalu insisted that the National Assembly increased the 2021 budget from the initial proposal of N13.08 trillion to N13.58 trillion because of economic realities the country was facing. “What we passed was N13.58 trillion. It’s an increase from what the President laid before us and the realities we found on ground made us push it to what we finally approved today (last Monday)”, he said.
General perception
The House may have judged itself to have performed so well in 2020, more than it was in the face of daunting challenges of the year, but in the perception of many Nigerians as usual, not much may have changed. Many argued amongst other things that the increment introduced into the 2021 budget may be subject of controversy in the coming days, as the president may only sign the bill with a caveat for immediate amendment.
