Nigerians react as House postpones resumption

Posted by admin | 9 years ago | 2,497 times



The Federal House of Representatives has postponed its resumption from today, Wednesday December 3 to Tuesday December 16, 2014to allow its members fully participate in their different political parties' primaries. 

The Clerk of the House, Mr Mohammed Sani-Omolori said in a statement, that the decision became pertinent and the leadership took it in consideration of the calendar of different political parties in the Country. 

Following the announcement late yesterday by Mr Sani-Omolori, reactions have continued to pour in. Some of the people who spoke with Factnewsonline condemned  the postponement while one person applauded it. 
Malachy Ugwummadu, former Secretary of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), said the posponement underlined the degree of political tension the country was on at moment. He told Factnewsonline that even though it is the prerogative of the National Assembly to regulate its own affairs, even to set its own date of resumption, that what has happened was the backlash of excessive politicking over governance. 
"Whereas, it is the description and prerogative of the National Assembly to regulate its affairs, even set its date of resumption, the drawback is that the country itself is bearing the brunt of lack of governance"  he said. 
He went on to give example with the issue of state of emergency and the President's letter to the National Assembly, which has not been deliberated upon "As it is now,' he said, 'the state of emergency being operated in the North-east at the moment is clearly an illegality". 

A top Government official who spoke in Asaba Delta State on condition of anonymity, described it as a shame to the Country. "Its an act of irresponsibility which should not be condoned. Why should people who are being paid with taxpayers money be putting personal politics above national interest. Nigeria is facing a lot of challenges presently and all these lawmakers can talk about is return tickets? 

Others pointed out the current economic crisis and security challenges as stronger than any individual political interest. "It is all over the news about how 50 suicide bombers are on the prowl and our legislators are talking about party tickets", one fumed. 

The only person who saw it as a deepening of the country's democracy through equitable participation of all in the primaries, he however condemned what he described as the recent show of shame at the Lower House. 

It would be recalled that since the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal,  few weeks ago, decamped from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to All Progressive Congress,  there has been a lot of internal and external pressure on the House. The Constitution stipulates that the Speaker will be from the ruling party which is the majority. 

Unfortunately, in the case of Tambuwal, this has not been fully implemented and has led to litigations and counter litigations on whether he should vacate the seat or not. This has thrown division in the House - those in support of the Constitution and sympathizers of Tambuwal. 

This degenerated days back when the gate of the House of Representatives was locked against the members. They scaled the fence, bringing condemnation from all over the world.


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