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Members
of the House of Representatives from the six states in the South West
geo-political zone are reportedly divided over the alleged moves by
some members of the House to remove the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, from
office.

This is just as the
leadership of the House, at an executive session yesterday, appealed
for calm. Members of the Nigeria First Forum (NFF), a pressure group in
the lower legislative chamber, were alleged to have initiated a plot to
unseat Mr. Bankole, who is currently stranded in London as a result of
the volcanic ash which halted flights across Europe.

NFF, according to reports, is moving against the Speaker over financial impropriety and poor leadership style.

The group has
since denied the plot, though it admitted that its members are not
happy with the way the Speaker is administering the House.

Deputy Speaker,
Usman Nafada, had dissolved the House into executive session for 45
minutes, during which the alleged threat to remove Mr. Bankole was
discussed.

Although Mr.
Nafada had announced after the session that the lawmakers discussed the
approach to be adopted on the constitution amendment and Electoral Act,
it was gathered that some members complained about the Speaker’s
leadership style, saying it has put the House in a bad light.

Among the issues
raised were that of the 2010 Budget and the leadership’s handling of
the political crisis in the country, which they claimed would have done
a lot of damage to the lower legislative chamber.

Peace emissaries

Mr. Nafada was said
to have appealed to the aggrieved lawmakers for understanding and
assured that all the issues they complain about would be addressed.

The deputy speaker
also told them that Mr. Bankole has been sending emissaries to some of
the lawmakers asking them to wade into the matter with a view to
resolving it.

Some of the
aggrieved lawmakers were said to have complained that the 2010 Budget
was doctored, even though the entire House had passed the document on
the floor.

Our source said
that but for the quick dissolution into executive session some minutes
after its resumption from the three week Easter break, the members had
planned to come up with a motion on vote of no confidence on Mr.
Bankole.

The
debate on the review of the 1999 Constitution was yesterday stalled in
the House of Representatives, as most of the members did not come to
the plenary session with their copies of the report of the ad-hoc
committee on the review of the document.

Only nine out of
the 360 members attended the plenary session with their copies,
prompting the Deputy Speaker, Usman Nafada, who presided, to adjourn
the debate till today.

The House had on
Monday announced its plan to continue debate on the report submitted by
its ad-hoc committee chaired by Mr. Nafada last March.

Prior to the
adjournment, it had dissolved into executive session for 45 minutes
during which it discussed some issues, including the method to be
adopted in amending the constitution.

Mr. Nafada reported
after the executive session that members agreed that voting on the
amendment of the document would begin on Thursday, adding that the
process would be aired live on television to enable Nigerians know the
voting pattern of their representatives.

He added that the
lawmakers also resolved that amendment of the Electoral Act would not
be considered until that of the constitution is concluded.

But when the House
eventually dissolved into the Committee of Whole to commence the debate
on the amendment of the constitution, members complained that they did
not have copies of the report to do so. Mr. Nafada was shocked when
only nine members indicated that they had their copies.

“Most members don’t
have copies of the report; only eight or nine members have their
copies,” the Deputy Speaker said. He asked those who had not been given
the report to go to the Committee of Rules and Business to collect same
ahead of the debate today.

No passport photographs

Mr. Nafada also
announced that only 270 cards with which the lawmakers would use to
vote on the amendment, were ready. He, therefore, urged members who
were yet to submit their passport photographs to do so.

Meanwhile, plans by
a member of the House, Bashir Bolarinwa, to “transfer his services”
from Lagos State to Kwara State also generated argument on the floor
yesterday.

Mr. Bolarinwa, who
represents Lagos Mainland federal constituency of Lagos State on the
ticket of the Action Congress (AC), had written the House leadership
informing it of his plan. The letter was read by Mr. Nafada.

But AC leader, Femi Gbajabiamila decried Mr Bolarinwa’s action, insisting that it was unconstitutional.

Relying on Section
68 of the 1999 Constitution, Mr. Gbajabiamila, who himself is from
Lagos State, contended that Mr. Bolarinwa should be ready to lose his
seat in the lower chamber if he went ahead with his plan.

The AC leader
warned the House not to condone illegality, which according to him, Mr.
Bolarinwa was planning to plunge the chamber into.

Mr. Nafada however ruled Mr. Gbajabiamila out of order, saying Mr.
Gbajabiamila did not know if Mr. Bolarinwa’s plan would come into
effect in 2011.

The opposition party, Action Congress (AC), has said the
Executive Council of the Federation’s decision to invoke Section 144 of the
Constitution to resolve the issue of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s lingering
illness should not be regarded as mere emotion.

In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it has no doubt that if the Constitution is
strictly followed, the executive council will not wait a day longer to start
the process of declaring the president incapacitated, based on his long-term
illness.

“Those who are trying to appeal to our emotion, who are saying
we should keep the president in office, even if he is unable to perform his
official functions, must be told in clear terms that one cannot eat his cake
and have it too. It is either we want to be ruled by law or by emotion,” the
statement read.

A Constitutional issue

President Yar’Adua has not been able to function officially
since November 2009, the party spokesperson said. However, the writers of the
Constitution anticipated such a situation, which is why they made the provision
for Section 144.

“Now, we are being told by self-acclaimed guardians of the
president that our morality will be debased if we follow the stipulations of
our Constitution to resolve this lingering issue. These moralists are saying
there is no difference between the occupier of the presidency, who is an
individual, and the presidency itself, which is an institution. They are saying
national interest should be subjugated to personal interest.

“They are saying we must maintain the status quo and have an
acting president that stays that way indefinitely. No, the Constitution did not
make provision for an indefinite acting presidency. We must resolve this issue
within the dictates of the Constitution, remove the Sword of Damocles that
Yar’Adua’s invisible presidency has become on the acting presidency, and get
our country moving. Sentiments have no place in this issue,” the party’s
statement read.

Presidency in hiding

The party also condemned the current situation in which Acting
President, Goodluck Jonathan, is yet to see the president since his return to
the country from Saudi Arabia, almost three months ago – even when both are
within the precinct of Aso Rock.

“The mere fact that the acting president has so far been
prevented from seeing the president is a confirmation of the fact that the
cabal holding Yar’Adua hostage is doing so for selfish reasons, rather than
acting in the interest of the President or that of the Nigerian people.

“Since Nigeria is a democracy, rather than a fiefdom, Nigerians must ignore
these Yar’Adua apologists. The members of the EXCOF (Executive Council of the
Federation) must act in accordance with the Constitution,” the statement read.

Fidelia Njeze, the aviation minister on Monday declared that the
ministry will focus on enhancing comfort across airports in the country.

The minister, who made this known during her facility tour and
inspection at the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos disclosed that she is
not satisfied with the state of the Lagos airport.

“The problems with the aviation industry are still there, but
we are going to concentrate on some selected areas with priority in the
enhancement of comfort at airports,” she said. “We will make sure that there is
a tangible improvement in the quality of service at our airports, especially at
our terminals.” According to Mrs. Njeze, the poor state of facilities at the
international and domestic airports will be addressed in a couple of months,
adding that the ministry will section the projects into short, medium and long
term plans.

“The work to be addressed here cannot be actualised in one week,
but we are going to make sure that during the period available to us we make
passengers comfortable whenever they visit any of Nigeria’s airports,” she
said.

“We will rectify the air conditioning systems to ensure good
temperature, and improve the toilet facilities, which actually are in a state
of decay.”

It could be recalled that NEXT on more than three occasions
reported the plights passengers face at the Lagos international airport, as a
result of dilapidated toilets, non-functional air conditioners, faulty flight
display systems as well as broken down luggage conveyor belts.

Changes soon

Mrs. Njeze, however, promised airport users that in two months
there are going to be significant changes at airports in the country,
especially the Lagos airport being the premier airport in the country.

Commenting on the incident caused by bird strikes on Dana Air
MD 83 aircraft on Monday, Mrs. Njeze disclosed that the ministry will install
additional bird scaring equipment to dispel the airborne creatures from inflicting
harm on aircraft and humans.

“The truth is that I am not satisfied with what is on ground at our
airports, but I’m happy that there are improvements like the acquisition of
fire functional tenders,” she said. “I can see three here already and I’m made
to know that seven more are on the way.”

Any senior civil servant from grade level ten and above in the
Ondo State Civil Service who lacks adequate computer skills will be shown the
way out of service, the state Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget,
Akin Adaramola, said in Akure on Monday.

Mr. Adaramola, who spoke at a four-day training programme on
information software at Igbara-Oke, Ifedore local government area of the state,
said because the world has been turned to a global village, civil servants in
the state must be computer literate to keep their jobs.

“Graduates with PHD, BSC, and HND without having any computer
knowledge should be ranked among illiterates,” he said.

He noted that for quick implementation of budget and development
in all sectors, government needs more computer literates in its ministries and
parastatals.

The workshop was organised by the state government in
collaboration with United Nations International Children’s Fund [UNICEF]. The
commissioner said graduates without good knowledge of the computer for day to
day office jobs are living in ‘fools paradise.’

“It is highly disappointing that some civil servants from grade
level ten and above cannot operate a computer. As government, we will no longer
tolerate such attitude from workers.

“The basic level of computer needs to be introduced to students
from primary schools, so that when they grow up, it would not be strange to
them,” he said.

Data for planning

Mr. Adaramola said the present government in the state strongly
believes in the importance of data for effective planning, hence the need for
its workers to be ICT compliant.

He also explained that in order to encourage its workforce on
the use of computer, the state government has introduced a system whereby all
information about the activities of the government will be sent to ministries
through email.

Mr. Adaramola assured that before the end of this year, the
state would prepare its database.

More revelations are coming to the fore on why the former
Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Taofiq Abdulsalam; his deputy,
Mayowa Akinfolarin, and other officers of the Assembly were impeached by their
colleagues two weeks ago.

The former chairman, House Committee on Information at the
Assembly, Igbekele Bolodeoku, who was guest on a television programme in Akure
on Monday, said the agreement to change the House leadership was reached at the
parliamentary session of the House.

Mr. Bolodeoku, a PDP lawmaker representing Ese-Odo constituency,
said six PDP lawmakers signed the impeachment notice before three laterbacked
out.

He said the failure of the PDP group to carry out the
impeachment was a precursor to a parliamentary meeting where the decision to
sack him was taken.

According to him, having got the signatures of 18 members, the
lawmakers decided to remove the Speaker for ineptitude and non- display of the
intelligentsia and dexterity expected of him in the handling of the House
affairs.

“It was not a PDP affair, PDP caucus alone cannot impeach the
former Speaker,” he said. “We are not enough. We have to carry everybody along.
Remember, Labour Party is intact and I addressed them in my capacity as the
House spokesman on the matter.”

He also refuted claims by PDP lawmakers that their signatures
were forged to make the impeachment exercise possible.

“During the meeting, I got signatures of seven PDP members,” he
said. “The forgery allegation is a funny story. One of them, that is Fatai
Adams Adekanye, signed it, contested for the Speaker that same morning, got six
votes, but he didn’t get to the post.”

He absolved the state governor, Olusegun Mimiko, of involvement
in the impeachment saga, saying that the former Speaker would have been
impeached eight months ago, but for the governor’s intervention.

“The governor was not involved in the impeachment, and we must
clear that. I don’t see reason for his involvement. Let me tell you, Hon.
Taofeek would have gone eight months ago, but the governor prevailed on some LP
members who refused to sign. Taofeek is doing business with the governor and
pretending to be a PDP member. I know long time ago that the chick will soon
come home to roost,” he said.

Guilty of ineptitudeness

Meanwhile, a Labour Party lawmaker in the Assembly, Olatunji
Dairo, also urged the new leadership to withdraw the official vehicles of some
legislators who refused to join their colleagues for legislation, since the
impeachment of the former Speaker, Taofiq Abdulsalam.

Some parliamentarians, under the aegis of ‘G11′, have reportedly
shunned the proceedings since penultimate Thursday because of the new
development at the Assembly.

Speaking to reporters in Akure, the state capital, Mr. Dairo,
who represents Owo Constituency II, said nobody was voted to be a Speaker when
vying for a seat at the Assembly.

“We are elected to represent our people here, even some of those
aggrieved lawmakers were not voted legitimately by the people. They rigged
elections to secure their seats”, Dairo said.

According to him, the new leadership under Samuel Adesina should
force the absentee lawmakers to drop their official cars.

He described the recent impeachment as a beautiful development.

“We effected a change with Bakita Bello after two years, and now we decided
to change the former leadership under Abdulsalam because of its ineptitude,” he
said.

A Nigerian legal practitioner in Diaspora, Fola Rahman, has
joined the group of aspirants seeking to contest the Ogun Central Senatorial
District in 2011.

The lawyer, who has his chambers in United Kingdom where he had
being practicing for over 15 years, said in Abeokuta at the weekend that he is
contesting under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} in the
state, and was sure he would win the party’s primaries.

Ogun Central Senatorial District is presently being represented
by Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello and she is known to nurse the ambition of re-contesting
the seat. Mr Rahman, however, said that was not a threat to his own ambition.

The new entrant into politics said he joined the race to
contribute his quota to the development of the country.

‘I am not afraid, I have taken courage, It is an assignment,” he said. “I
will represent well. I will make a difference in this race. We are ready and we
have being working. I want to do things that are unique.”

Mr Rahman, who said he did not have any political godfather, called on the
party leaders to ‘let the door open for everybody. If I can have break through
the door of success, we are ready to take giant steps.’

Expressing optimism on his political mission, the aspirant who was
accompanied by officials of his campaign team, said ‘a man is not blessed until
he blesses others. I joined the race to contribute my quota. I have had
discussions and coast is clear for me.’

The House of Representatives is in the process of reconstituting its
standing committees. Just before members went on a three week Easter
break which ends tomorrow, the leadership directed the Selection
Committee to begin the process of reconstituting the committees, which
will be finalised upon the resumption of the House.

The deputy speaker,
Usman Nafada, who presided over the last plenary session before the
break, said the Selection Committee needed to return to work earlier to
enable them fill the vacant chairmanship slots.

Although, he did
not name the committees affected, no fewer than seven committees are
currently without chairmen, including Works,Power, Lake Chad,
Women in Parliament, Privatisation and Commercialization, Cooperation
and Integration in Africa and Information and National Orientation.

Their chairmen
were either removed by the leadership over certain allegations or lost
their seats following the nullification of their elections into the
House. One committee chairman died.

Therefore, barring
any hitches, new chairmen for those committees will emerge tomorrow or
at the most, in the next few weeks. But there are indications that
several other committees will have their leadership reshuffled.

The last time a
major reconstitution of the committees was carried out was in October
2008, some 11 months after the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole and Mr
Nafada assumed office – exactly 40 days after 69 of the former 72
committees he inherited from former Speaker Patricia Etteh, were
dissolved and about five months after he initiated the process of
overhauling them.

Unlike Ms. Etteh,
who gave all her 72 committees except one (Public Accounts) to PDP
lawmakers to chair, Mr Bankole gave more committees to the opposition
parties, namely ANPP and AC.

But regrettably, that was where the excitement ended.

Since then, not
many of the 84 committees have impressed the Speaker himself, let alone
Nigerians and other watchers of the legislature. To be sure, this is
not due to paucity of funds but, largely, because of the unpreparedness
of the committee members and leadership to do the job they were elected
to do.

Committees are the
engine rooms of the legislature. What ministries and ministers are to
the executive arm of government is about what committees and their
chairmen are to the legislature. Committees not only consider bills or
resolutions committed to them by the whole House, they oversee
departments and agencies of the executive and play a major role in
allocating funds to such agencies.

When created, a
committee’s leadership is allowed to, in turn, create subcommittees or
ad-hoc committees to ease its duties. A committee or subcommittee
chairman is usually seen as a ‘bride’ of any official of the executive
arm. He can use that position, if he chooses, to secure contracts,
employment space for his constituents or other benefits from a
government agency.

Hence, the
reconstitution of committees by the leadership of any legislature is a
serious exercise. But a common feature of the exercise is the attendant
anxiety among lawmakers who want to be chairmen or deputy.

Some do not just
want to be chairmen, they want to head what are usually regarded in
parliamentary parlance as “juicy committees.” Such juicy committees
include Petroleum Resources, Education, Interior, Communications,
Aviation, Transport, House Services, Agriculture, FCT, Defence, Power, Justice/Judiciary, Appropriation, Finance, Niger Delta/NDDC, Works, Banking and Currency, Foreign Affairs, Police Affairs, Gas, Rules and Business.

Do it right

The Selection Committee whose membership are the principal officers
(10 in all), have been meeting. Already, there are reports of intense
lobbying. Interestingly, the lobbying is not limited to thecommittees whose
chairmanship seats are vacant. There is a growing anxiety in the House
since Mr Nafada dropped the hint of filling the vacant committees.

Even the perceived arch enemies of the leadership, particularly of Mr Bankole, are reportedly falling
over themselves in a bid to retain their chairmanship and deputy
chairmanships. Those sacked are also in desperate bid to return to
their committees. Some have allegedly threatened to unseat the Speaker
if they do not get what they want.

Experience has
shown that the desire of these lawmakers is not to serve the Nigerian,
but merely to line up their pockets with publicmoney. The general
elections are around the corner and those legislators who want to
return to the House or are aspiring to higher offices need money. Those
who already know that they are not returning, probably by virtue of the
internal arrangement in their constituency or because they have fallen
out with their godfathers, are also hoping to make enough to live the
good life before other political opportunities come.

Composition of the last committee was everything but thorough. It is understandable, because of the need for the Speaker to provide “job for the boys”
who brought him to power. He, particularly needed to compensate members
of the Integrity Group. But it is important that Mr Bankole gets it right this time. It is time to think Nigeria. The buck stops on his table. Therefore, one thing Mr Bankole should do is to put round pegs in round holes.

Mr Bankole should
also disband committees such as Lake Chad, Urban, Emergency, HIV/AIDS,
Poverty Alleviation, Women In Parliament, Donor, Constituency Outreach, Special Duties and Rural Development and make them subcommittees of other major committees. They are not serving any purpose.

Considering the lapses observed in
conduct and operation and with the introduction of a new system of
matriculation examination, the Universal Tertiary Matriculation
Examination (UTME) says it is no longer desirable for universities to
continue to organise the Post-University Matriculation Examination
(Post UME), the registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation
Board (JAMB), Dibu Ojerinde, has said.

The JAMB official, who spoke in Abuja
during the inspection of the UTME examination, said that since students
are writing examinations for admission into six different higher
institutions, it would be a great burden to maintain the Post-UME. He
also said there are too many lapses in the operation and conduct of the
post UME examinations.

Post UME screening was introduced by
several universities to test students who have passed the JAMB
examination. It is often conducted by the institution into which the
candidate is seeking to gain admission.

“As of now, government says there must
be a screening, so we would still comply with the directive. However,
the problem is that now we have six institutions of choice for the
candidates; are they going to go through six institutions for
screening?” Mr. Ojerinde said.

Exam still relevant

Minister of
Education, Ruqayyatu Rufai, however said the post UME exercise, despite
obvious failures in the screening exercise by some tertiary
institutions, still remains relevant and will continue until a
standardised system is adopted for admitting candidates into higher
institutions.

“The Post UME issue
is something we have to deliberate more on and make changes where
necessary, but as at now, post UME would continue because after this
examination being taken by the students now; they will go to their
various universities,” said Mrs. Rufai. “We are actually planning to
look at its uniformity, standardising it to ensure that a person that
sits for post UME in any university can use it in another university;
but that arrangement has not been concluded yet.”

Mrs. Rufai restated
the federal government’s resolve to carry out a national examination
summit to tackle the challenges encountered by examination bodies like
JAMB, NECO and WAEC, among others. She noted that there should be
uniformity in public exams to make them stress-free for both the
examining bodies and the candidates.

Immediate action needed

The JAMB boss, Mr.
Ojerinde, said the Post UME has created questions about the board’s
capability to conduct free and fair examinations.

He described as
unfortunate the exorbitant fees charged by various institutions, which
refused to abide by the federal government rule that the post UME
charges must not exceed N1000. Some charge as much as N20, 000, he
explained.

However, the
registrar admitted it would not be easy to scrap the exam. “We have
made the mistake of introducing post UME, that’s my opinion,” he said.
“Nobody can just wake up one day and stop it easily until everybody is
convinced that the job going on in JAMB is okay.”

New Exam

Saturday’s
inspection revealed that about 10,000 Nigerian Security and Civil
Defence Corps (NSCDC) personnel, as well as 5,100 handheld scanners and
detectors were deployed to all the UTME exam centres nationwide to
provide security.

Officials from the
ministry of education and its parastatals, as well as the media and
other independent observers, were on hand to witness the exam.

A total of 1,375,642 candidates are reported to have registered for the examination.

The Nigerian Police
Force should be commended for reducing insecurity to the barest minimum
during the recent local government council poll in the Federal Capital
Territory, the Police Service Commission has said.

The commendation of
the force was contained in an interim report on the election released
by Chairman of the PSC Strategy Committee, Otive Igbuzor and made
available to our correspondent.

The commission also
commended the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Nigerian Security and
Civil Defence Corps and the Nigerian Prisons Service personnel for
ensuring a secured election atmosphere during the poll, conducted on
10th April, 2010.

The PSC said the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) duly accredited it to
monitor the conduct of police officers during the election as part of
its statutory responsibility of holding the police accountable.

The monitoring team
was made up of four persons led by Mr. Igbuzor. Other members were
PSC’s Director, Ben Iwambe; Deputy Director, Jibrin Saeed and Kingsley
Oghoro.

The team visited
three area councils namely: AMAC, Gwagwalada and Kuje, prior to which
it had given out three telephone numbers through which members of the
public could channel complaints on the performance of police personnel
with regard to the election to the commission.

Commendation for conduct

“The Police Service
Commission commends the Police officers that participated in the FCT
Area Council election for their professional conduct,” the report said.

“In particular, we
commend the FCT Police Commissioner, Mr. John Haruna for his prompt
response to deployment issues. The Commission will learn from the
monitoring of the gubernatorial election on 6th February, 2010 and the
FCT Area Council election on 10th April, 2010 to make a comprehensive
plan to monitor police conduct during the 2011 general elections.”

Some of the
observations of the commission include: security presence in all parts
of the FCT including the Nigeria Police, civil defence, FRSC and
Nigeria Prisons Service no police presence at the commencement of
distribution of materials.

The residents of FCT conducted themselves in very peaceful manner during the elections.

There were between three to twenty police officers in each polling unit visited, with support from other security agencies.

The police officers were generally courteous, approachable and
co-operative, with their name tags and numbers displayed on their
uniforms.