The House of Representatives held plenary sessions 107, spent a total of 140 days on holiday between January 1 and December 31 in 2012, Daily Trust investigations have shown.

Based on the provisions of section 63 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the House is required to sit for at least 181 days in a year.
However, the constitution does not specify the way the House calendar should run and if committee sessions form part of the required sittings, as it only says: “The Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for a period of not less than one hundred and eighty-one days in a year.”

Our correspondent reports that although the two chambers of the National Assembly operate a legislative calendar that runs from June to June of the proceeding year, an analysis of the total number of sitting days by the House show the House sat for 107 days.

Under the House standing rules 2011, the lower legislative chamber only sits in plenary on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays while committees hold sessions throughout the week.

However, in 2012, the House held two special emergency sessions-the first was on Sunday January 8 during the fuel subsidy removal and on Friday, June 15- over the allegations of $620,000 bribery allegation levelled against former chairman of the House adhoc committee on Subsidy probe Rep Farouk Lawan.

Our correspondent reports that the two special sittings were the first in the recent democratic history of Nigeria.

During the period, House held plenary sessions as follows: January 10 days, February 13 days, March 12 days, April 9 days, May 14 days, June 10 days,  and July 9 days. August was zero days [b]because MPs proceeded on two months annual recess after concluding their first legislative year since inception and resumed on September 18th.

In same September, the House sat for 6 days, October, 9 days; November, 9 days while December was 6 days and they proceeded on Christmas and New Year break to resume on January 10.

Like the Senate, House also sits only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Also, last year, the legislators had two weeks Easter break in March and April and another two weeks break in March ending and early April for the Easter break and what they called “constituency outreach.”

There was one week break in early May for May Day public holiday and on May 24, the House adjourned plenary to May 30 to mark the 2012 Democracy Day.

Between June 6 and 19, MPs were on a 13-day break to mark the first anniversary of the seventh House but they cut short the break on Friday June 15 to debate the $620,000 subsidy probe bribery allegations.

From July 19 to September 18, the House went for its annual recess which lasted 62 days.

On October 18, the House again embarked on a 19-day Eid el-Kabir break and resumed plenary on November 6. Again, in early November, MPs adjourned plenary sittings for one week for over sights of ministries and departments on the implementation of the 2012 budget.

On November 29, the House also adjourned plenary to December 11 mainly for the lawmakers in the various standing committees to conclude work on the 2013 budget.

On December 20, after passing the 2013 Appropriation Bill, the House adjourned for a 21-day Christmas and New Year break to resume on January 10, 2013.[/b]

When contacted, Chairman House Committee on Rules and Business Rep. Albert Sam Tsokwa (PDP, Taraba) said “there is no way you can calculate our sittings from January to December of 2012 because our legislative calendar begins from June to June and as such, we have less number of sitting days in the first half of three legislative year due the two months annual recess from July to September. It’s not like the normal annual calendar.

“Suspending plenary does not mean you are on leave because we do some other legislative businesses such as the constitutional hearings in the 360 Federal constituencies, two weeks oversights of MDAs and so on.”

When contacted, Chairman House Committee on
Rules and Business Rep. Albert Sam Tsokwa
(PDP, Taraba) said “there is no way you can
calculate our sittings from January to December
of 2012 because our legislative calendar begins
from June to June and as such, we have less
number of sitting days in the first half of three
legislative year due the two months annual recess
from July to September. It’s not like the normal
annual calendar.

dareyking: Dem fada 4th to comment again na wa ooooo2 much lovee

manny4life: If I had to work for 107 and take 140 days as vacation, wahala will be so much on my head. In fact, joblessness will be an understatement. These are the people whom we pay billions of naira in salary?

koolg: Out of the 107 days which †hey sat for, what and what did they achieve to earn the bogus salaries they collect.
Plenary or not, they are always running their personal businesses and awarding contracts to their personal companies. I'm saying these from experience

Kadata:


According to the OP,

1) The legislative calendar is a June - June affair- not January- December.

2) The constitution doesn't specify how the calendar should be run.

So- its inconclusive whether or not they are short of plenary sessions for a legislative year

HNosegbe: Some important points:

1. Lawmakers need to focus more on actual lawmaking and reduce time spent on oversight.

2. Lawmakers' salaries should be restructured to reflect the part-time nature of their work. Salaries should be paid PER SITTING.

3. Constituents need a reorientation on the role of a representative. The idea of "constituency projects" is a big misnomer. It is not a lawmaker's function to provide boreholes, scholarships, roads, schools and hospitals to his community... State governors and LGA chairmen should be held accountable for all these.

4. Lawmakers need to set annual targets with regard to the number of bills they intend to pass and communicate these to Nigerians every year so that they can be held accountable just like the president.

In a democracy, governance is a collaborative process. We cannot keep blaming the president for all the nation's woes and absolve lawmakers from their fair share of blame. We must begin to hold ALL arms and ALL tiers of government accountable for their (in)actions.

gboss4sure: This lawmakers salary should be reduced to 50k per month by the way i don't or feel any effect if their laws, they are one of the problems that we have as a country

anonimi: This applies only to the PDP legislators only.
Those from the "opposition" parties declined to take the 140 days of vacation.
They worked throughout in caucuses drafting very useful bills for their constituents.
Two of the bills sponsored by the [size=14pt]Association of Conmen in Nigeria (ACN) caucus, was to reduce their salaries & allowances to align with RMAFC provisions & scrap the constituency projects[/size] as they promised to work hand in hand with the state governors and LGA chairmen and councillors to address the infrastructural needs of their areas of responsibility.

What is the difference between:

a) six
b) half a dozen

Kzinne: so dat dey can b like u abi? low life