the identified problems of
investigative hearings and
oversight of the executive
arm is the multiplicity of
committees with overlapping jurisdiction on the same
subject matter. This has led to
a situation where more than
one committee is handling the
same subject matter.
Invitations are sent to the same officials of government
by different committees on
the same subject,” says
Yakubu Dogara, the Speaker
of the House of
Representatives, while presenting the 8th House
legislative agenda.

Dogara has reversed this
statement and has gone ahead
to increase the committees in
the House of Rep from 84 to
95

In other words, the Dogara-
led House has told Nigerians
that their clamour for the
government to curb
corruption and slash the cost
of governance will continue to be a pipe dream. And they
are also letting us know in
very clear terms that as far as
the overpaid national
assembly members are
concerned, it is all about sharing the booty.
This is coming as several
ranking lawmakers of the
360-strong member chamber
intensify lobbying for the
headship of “Grade A” committees or what are
otherwise considered “plum”
committees.

Increasing the number of
committees from 84 to 95, the
House now has a rise in total
allocation to the various
committees.
Does it really make any sense splitting the committee on
education into three –
primary, secondary and
tertiary education- and that
on agriculture divided into
two – mechanised and rudimentary agriculture?
I think this is simply the
speaker compensating his
supporters at the expense of
the nation.
One question we should ask Mr Dogara is if it is not the
same House of
Representatives that had 20
committees under former
Speaker, Umar Ghali Na’abba in
1999. The United States is bigger
than Nigeria in size and
population and has a larger
House of Representatives
with 435 members, and it
currently has 21 congressional committees, 20 of which are
standing committees and one
select committee.
Increasing the number of
House Committees from 84 to
95 in the face of a dwindling revenue and their talks about
‘the need to cut cost of
governance’ is hypocrisy of
the highest order. The sad
thing is that these guys are
not doing anything for us. How it is that no member of
the National Assembly has
been recalled by his
constituency beats me. What
can 95 committees do that 20
can’t? How many members constitute a committee? Are
we going to have one person
in several committees?

Well, I guess yes, and no
wonder they have been
scrambling for “plum
committees”. Plum? Isn’t that
a word for milking the
treasury? Are we supposed to have anything ‘plum’ in the
House? With the amount of
committees, then every
member will definitely be a
chairman of one committee or
the other.

The entire business of
legislation should be made a
part-time thing and members
paid only for the times they
actually sit and engage in
legislative business. This will save cost of running the
National Assembly and make
sense in the noise about
reducing the cost of
governance.
Meanwhile, another troubling story in the news is that of
the Taraba State governor
approving the appointment of
50 special advisers and 62
senior special assistants,
totalling 112 aides, who shall be advising him in the
Government House. How
difficult is governing a state
like Taraba that the governors
need 112 advisers?

We must stop our so-called
politicians from this madness.
If a governor needs 112
advisers to run his
government, why electing
him at all? We need to be conducting psychological tests
on our political office seekers.
They have fashioned another
way to milk the nation. This is
corruption at another level, if
they cannot cut down the cost of running the
government in a dire time like
this, then they should stop
singing about fighting
corruption because they are
even more corrupt than the people they accuse of
corruption.

http://africwap.com/2015/11/14/nigerian-lawmakers-need-psychological-evaluation-etcetera/

what an Insult

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