Lawmakers cannot be tried for doing their jobs- DogaraLawmakers cannot be tried for doing their jobs- Dogara
Fri Aug 12, 2016 07:26:am Politics
2.6K By Buchi Obichie
Amidst the budget padding scandal rocking the green chamber, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said that no court case can be brought against him or any member of the legislature for performing their duties as captured in the Powers and Privileges Act of the Legislative Houses.
The Speaker made the declaration on Thursday at an interactive session with civil society organisations while appraising the first year of the legislative agenda of the 8th House of Representatives.
He said that the recent controversy surrounding the 2016 budget would give the legislature a chance to enhance the competence of members and sensitise the public on the role of the legislature.
According to him, legislative business of the House "cannot be grounds for any investigation or any procedure or proceeding to be commenced in court against a member of parliament, either the Speaker or even the Senate President, once they are done in exercise of their proper function.
"The law is there. Both communications, whatever it is, they are privileged. That is in order to give independence to the legislature. If the legislature is not independent, we can't do anything. If whatever you say on the floor or before a committee or whatever you communicate is subject of litigation, then all the members will be in court and at the end of the day when debate comes, you cannot even air your views."
Justifying why the House inserted projects into the budget, Dogara, said it was done in line with the legislative agenda of the 8th House of Representatives, to enhance the integrity of the project selection process.
He lamented that if the 2016 budget was allowed to go as proposed by the Executive, not a single federally funded borehole would have been sited in his constituency, comprising three local government areas.
He said: "When it comes to national budget, who actually sits down to say these are the projects we will fund? Is the process open? Is it transparent? Are the people responsible for doing this accountable to anyone? You just find these projects littered in the budget. The answer is No!
"But some people sit in the budget office, I want to challenge the civil society to just take the budget of a particular ministry, for instance, and look at where the directors and some of the key officials, I don't even want to mention their names, just look at where they come from and then look at the allocation for that Ministry. It is all over. If you do that exercise, you will be shocked.
"That is why we are calling to question, the integrity of that process. The minister, perhaps, comes from a particular region and you will see that almost 60 to 70 per cent of the funds go to that place. In furtherance of our responsibilities and duties, as representatives of the people, we have to attract federal presence.
"Even in the USA, the requirement for a parliamentarian to keep winning election is to attract federal presence back to his constituency. A Senator brought just an airport in one of the districts in Texas, just for that, he has been elected over three times.
"The truth is that if you come from a constituency like mine for instance, we don't have a Perm Sec or a Director anywhere, so if you look at the 2016 budget, if it were to go as proposed by the executive, there is no single federally funded borehole, even if it is N50, there is no N50 meant for any project in my three local governments.
"Why? Because I don't have anybody where they are preparing or sharing these allocations. If it were not for the instrumentality of the zonal intervention, or what is known as constituency projects, how can I attract even a federally funded borehole in my constituency in four years? The answer is none! Then how do I get elected into the House again? It is not possible. So the biggest challenge before us is to address the integrity of the project selection process.
"In the 2016 budget, if you look at it critically, if we had no powers to amend laws, by the time the executive itself brought the proposals to us, there were so many aspects that funding was not effectively provided for."
Dogara noted that only N250 was budgeted for daily feeding of prisoners. "How callous can we be? You have constrained somebody regardless of the offence he has committed; some of these people are even innocent, but they are there because they are awaiting trial and at the end of the day, some of them may be discharged and acquitted but you are subjecting him into a position by providing only N250 to feed him in present day Nigeria. How will that work?
"We looked at it and said no, that must go up. Even if we don't have money in the country, at least, we can provide N500 to feed them through the intervention of the National Assembly. Nobody is talking about padding in this case."
Dogara also added that the House was determined to collectively ensure that its agenda, such as e-voting, was implemented in the remaining sessions of the 8th House of Representatives.
The Speaker made the declaration on Thursday at an interactive session with civil society organisations while appraising the first year of the legislative agenda of the 8th House of Representatives.
He said that the recent controversy surrounding the 2016 budget would give the legislature a chance to enhance the competence of members and sensitise the public on the role of the legislature.
According to him, legislative business of the House "cannot be grounds for any investigation or any procedure or proceeding to be commenced in court against a member of parliament, either the Speaker or even the Senate President, once they are done in exercise of their proper function.
"The law is there. Both communications, whatever it is, they are privileged. That is in order to give independence to the legislature. If the legislature is not independent, we can't do anything. If whatever you say on the floor or before a committee or whatever you communicate is subject of litigation, then all the members will be in court and at the end of the day when debate comes, you cannot even air your views."
Justifying why the House inserted projects into the budget, Dogara, said it was done in line with the legislative agenda of the 8th House of Representatives, to enhance the integrity of the project selection process.
He lamented that if the 2016 budget was allowed to go as proposed by the Executive, not a single federally funded borehole would have been sited in his constituency, comprising three local government areas.
He said: "When it comes to national budget, who actually sits down to say these are the projects we will fund? Is the process open? Is it transparent? Are the people responsible for doing this accountable to anyone? You just find these projects littered in the budget. The answer is No!
"But some people sit in the budget office, I want to challenge the civil society to just take the budget of a particular ministry, for instance, and look at where the directors and some of the key officials, I don't even want to mention their names, just look at where they come from and then look at the allocation for that Ministry. It is all over. If you do that exercise, you will be shocked.
"That is why we are calling to question, the integrity of that process. The minister, perhaps, comes from a particular region and you will see that almost 60 to 70 per cent of the funds go to that place. In furtherance of our responsibilities and duties, as representatives of the people, we have to attract federal presence.
"Even in the USA, the requirement for a parliamentarian to keep winning election is to attract federal presence back to his constituency. A Senator brought just an airport in one of the districts in Texas, just for that, he has been elected over three times.
"The truth is that if you come from a constituency like mine for instance, we don't have a Perm Sec or a Director anywhere, so if you look at the 2016 budget, if it were to go as proposed by the executive, there is no single federally funded borehole, even if it is N50, there is no N50 meant for any project in my three local governments.
"Why? Because I don't have anybody where they are preparing or sharing these allocations. If it were not for the instrumentality of the zonal intervention, or what is known as constituency projects, how can I attract even a federally funded borehole in my constituency in four years? The answer is none! Then how do I get elected into the House again? It is not possible. So the biggest challenge before us is to address the integrity of the project selection process.
"In the 2016 budget, if you look at it critically, if we had no powers to amend laws, by the time the executive itself brought the proposals to us, there were so many aspects that funding was not effectively provided for."
Dogara noted that only N250 was budgeted for daily feeding of prisoners. "How callous can we be? You have constrained somebody regardless of the offence he has committed; some of these people are even innocent, but they are there because they are awaiting trial and at the end of the day, some of them may be discharged and acquitted but you are subjecting him into a position by providing only N250 to feed him in present day Nigeria. How will that work?
"We looked at it and said no, that must go up. Even if we don't have money in the country, at least, we can provide N500 to feed them through the intervention of the National Assembly. Nobody is talking about padding in this case."
Dogara also added that the House was determined to collectively ensure that its agenda, such as e-voting, was implemented in the remaining sessions of the 8th House of Representatives.
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