N30 billion severance package, ASUU intervention form major issues in Reps

 

The ninth National Assembly is at its final lap, and on Wednesday, the lawmakers considered and passed their final budget which they rewarded themselves handsomely with N228 billion, the highest budget ever for the National Assembly.

In this report, DAILY POST reviews the top 5 events that happened in the green chamber.

Impeachment move

In July, another “move to impeach” president Muhammadu Buhari started in the Senate and the Minority Caucus in the House was quick to jump in. Senators in the minority party and some in the ruling party, like Umar Bulkachuwa and Elisha Abbo had vowed to remove the President after the Senate President Ahmad Lawan prevented a security related motion.

After a meeting of the National Assembly minority caucus, the lawmakers gave a six-week ultimatum to the President to fix insecurity facing the country or be removed.

Since they returned from the recess, nothing has been heard of the move, rather, they continue to have motions on mass killing across the country.

N228.1 billion budget, N30 billion severance package

In October, President Buhari presented a budget of N20.51 trillion to the National Assembly, with N169 billion as part of the statutory transfer to the lawmakers.

On Wednesday, the lawmakers increased the federal budget to N21.82 trillion and added a good sum to their budget to bring it to N228 billion, the highest budget ever.

DAILY POST had reported that the lawmakers are proposing to spend N30 billion on severance package for outgoing lawmakers and inauguration of new members. It remains unclear how much a lawmaker will take home.

It would be recalled that Senator Barau Jibrin, the Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, while presenting the report on the budget, explained the reason for the increment.

He stated that several line items were not provided for in the budget submitted by the executive.

ASUU strike intervention

In 2022, the House of Representatives also intervened in the 8 months strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, as Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila led the negotiation that brokered compromise between the government and the ASUU.

However, ASUU recently accused Gbajabiamila of failing to keep his promise of facilitating the payment of the owed salaries due to the “no work no pay” policy of the federal government. The lawmakers have since reminded ASUU that no such agreement was reached.

130 members lost primaries

Once again, members of the House lost out at the primaries, and for some, the governors are responsible for their predicament.

According to reports, about 130 members will not return to the 10th Assembly due to one reason or another.

The Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila blamed the delegate system for the outcomes of the elections that denied several members tickets.

Reps versus Emefiele

The House and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele had a long battle in 2022.

In May, the Speaker of the House, Gbajabiamila had walked out Deputy Governor, Kingsley Obiora, who represented Mr Emefiele during the aviation fuel scarcity probe.

“I don’t want to get into much details because I will get very upset. Please, pass that message to him, that he was needed here—we all have important things to do— there is nothing that can be as important. Just pass that message to him,” Gbajabiamila told Obiora before walking him out.

Mr Emefiele later appeared on the same day after the threat by the Speaker.

Earlier this month, Mr Emefiele was another subject of discussion on the floor of the House, as he refused to honour several invitations of the House over the cash limit withdrawal policy.

The lawmakers only backed down after he (Emefiele) disclosed that he was overseas for medical treatment, hence, the lawmakers allowed his deputy, Aisha Ahmad to brief them.

The lawmakers are expected to be back by 17th January to wrap up their stay in the 9th House.