From Govt. House to Senate: Story of the Abia Troika
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The CardVol.2 No. 2 | July, 2021 ReportMidTerm Edition How the Abia NASS Contingent Fared at Abaribe Orji Kalu Midterm Theodore Orji Ben Kalu Sam Onuigbo Nkiru Onyejeocha Darlington Nwokocha Nkem Abonta Nkole Ndukwe Solomon Adaelu From Govt. House 48 Hours of Commotion in To Senate: Story of Gbajabiamila’s the Abia Troika House JULY 2021 2 THE REPORT CARD OrderPaper Nigeria MIDTERM SCORECARD: Orji and Kalu lead Abia team in bills sponsorship BY MICHAEL OLAOGUN his first year. The landmark climate change bill, recently passed by the rderPaperToday - The Abia State House is sponsored by Onuigbo. team at the National Assembly, However, Solomon Adaelu (Ob- made up of three Senators and ingwa/Osisioma/Ugwunagbo) has no eight House of Representatives bill or motion sponsored by him since Omembers, has got a mixed performance in the beginning of the 9th National As- their discharge of duties. sembly. Of the three senators, two are former Gov- It is interesting to note that Abia ernors - Orji Uzor Kalu (APC, Abia North) State House of Representatives team and Theodore Ahamefule Orji (PDP, Abia contributed 9% of the 1365 bills spon- Central) - who have served the State for a sored since the beginning of 9th As- period of eight years each. Cumulatively, the sembly. Senators from Abia State have sponsored a Read full stor at OrderPaper.ng total of 13 bills, which amounts to 1.7% of the total bills sponsored at the Senate at midterm. Orji is the sponsor of the highest number of bills (7) constituting 53.87% of all bills by the Senators from the state. All of his bills were sponsored in the first year of the cur- rent 9th assembly. His counterparts, Kalu and Enyinnaya Abaribe have respectively sponsored 4 and 2 bills, leaving their perfor- mances at 30.7% and 15.3% of the State total. Notable among the bills sponsored is the Local Industry Patronage Bill 2021 (SB. 714) by Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu, who had no bill in his first year due to his incarceration, while Abaribe had 2 of his four bills sponsored in his first legislative year of the 9th Assembly. Meanwhile, at the House of Representa- tives, Benjamin Kalu (APC, Bende Federal Constituency), Uzoma Nkem Abonta (PDP, Ukwa East/Ukwa West) and Nkeiruka Onye- jeocha (APC, Isuikwuato/Umuneochi) have the highest number of bills sponsored at 41, 35 and 30 respectively. Kalu accordingly has 33.3% of the total bills sponsored by the Abia team, while Abonta and Onyejeocha contributed 28.46% and 24.39% respective- ly. Significant among the bill sponsored by Hon. Abonta is the Environmental Health Bill, 2019. Ben Kalu sponsored 24 bills in his first year, Abonta had 31 bills in his first year, while Onyejeocha had 19 bills to her credit in the first legislative year of the 9th Assembly. Late Ossy Prestige and Nkole Uko Nduk- we, (PDP, Arochukwu/Ohafia) have respec- tively sponsored 4 and 2 bills, leaving their performance at 3.2% and 1.6% of the state total. Similarly, Samuel Ifeanyi Onuigbo (PDP, Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South), Darlington Nwokocha (PDP, Isiala Ngwa North / South) have only respectively spon- sored 4 bills (3.2%) and 7 bills (5.6%). While the former had 2 bills sponsored in his first year, the latter had no bill to his credit in JULY 2021 OrderPaper Nigeria THE REPORT CARD 3 48 hours of commotion in Gbajabiamila’s House (INEC) to brief it on the possibility and applicabil- BY LIZZY CHIRKPI ity of the electronic transmission of results across the country. rderPaperToday – The events of the past few days in the National Assem- bly, and precisely the House of Repre- Day two commotion… sentatives, have thrown the country The House of Representatives convened on into more confusion, commotion and panic as Friday to start off from where it stopped on Thurs- O day. As expected, the chamber admitted the NCC to whether the interest of certain individuals su- persedes that of the over one hundred and seventy team who said only 50.3 percent of polling units in million Nigerians. the country was covered by 2G and 3G network. It is common knowledge that the National Executive Commissioner, Technical Services of Assembly is saddled with the responsibility of the Commission, Ubale Maska, who spoke on making laws for the development, progress, and behalf of the Commission, told the lawmakers good governance of the generality of the masses that the remaining 49.7 percent was without net- but going by recent developments the focus seems work coverage which would make it difficult to to be quite challenging for the lawmakers. transmit election results electronically. He also Deliberations on and eventual passage of the said only 3G network can adequately transmit the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and the Petroleum Gbajabiamila Wase results while also informing that it was possible to Industry Bill (PIB) have generated more argu- capture data offline where there is no network. He ments and controversies that leaves much to be also explained that there is a possibility that the desired. The chaos and drama pulled by members system could be hacked. "No system is safe from of the parliament during consideration of these hacking. The election in the United States in 2016 very important bills cannot leaves a sour taste in there is widespread belief that it was hacked by the the mouth vis-à-vis the representative functions Russians," he said. The Chairman of INEC did not of the legislators. appear neither did anyone from the electoral um- pire and no reasons were given for their absence. The Speaker before allowing his Deputy to take The electronic transmission over appealed to the House to allow consider- controversy… ation of other clauses before returning to consider Few days before the report of the Electoral Act the contentious section 52 (2). Shortly after, the Amendment Bill was laid, there were speculations Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, mounted the chair that some clauses of the bill had been deleted and to commence clause-by-clause voting on the re- new ones ‘smuggled.’ This caused a stir in public port. Mr. Wase skipped the contentious clause and debate with the National Assembly put on the started off with section 54, a move that did not go spot. This prompted a member of the House, down well with some opposition members who Ugonna Ozurigbo (APC, Imo) to raise a point of either did not understand the Speaker or did not order under matters of privilege at plenary. buy into his suggestion of retuning to clause 52 Ozurigbo claimed that he had been bom- Ndudi Elumelu Chinda advanced towards the mace. This led to a serious barded with calls and visits from members of his disruption of proceedings as members could be constituency, seeking clarification on the alleged the shouting that even Speaker's presence could here to insult me on an issue. Yes, it happened! It seen rowing along partisan and regional lines. At deletion and insertions. He also stated that despite not stop. The built-up tension led the presiding happened!! We are all saying this clause should go, this point, Mr. Okechukwu raised another point being a member of the committee on Electoral officer, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, to call for a and let me say it here that when we make laws, we of order insisting that the chairman (Wase) should Matters chaired by Aisha Dukku (APC, Gombe) closed door session. don't just make them for ourselves in this room. come back and put question on a pending motion he was not aware of any such alterations. "A num- I am for electronic voting and everything that previously moved by Kingsley Chinda asking for ber of Nigerians, particularly my constituents, Day one commotion… comes with it. But I make bold to ask that those the division of the House in order to vote on clause have been calling me and expressing worry about After a one hour closed door meeting, the who are saying we should transmit election results 52(2) in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. But the alteration to the electoral bill. I am a member Reps resumed plenary with the Speaker reading via electronic means, what about our brothers and the deputy speaker denied the existence of such of the committee; I don't know the information a speech and thereafter continued consideration sisters in Maiduguri, Yobe and the rest?" While he a motion, saying that he could not recall anyone going around where they said that we carefully of other items on the day’s order paper without was still complaining about the insults hauled at moving for the division of the House to decide amended section 52 sub-section 2 of the electoral any mention of what actually transpired in the him, he had barely finished when he was shouted clause 52(2). At this point the minority leader, bill. That the agreed electronically transmitted executive session. At that point, Chairman of the at again as lawmakers interrupted. Ndudi Elumelu, said since Wase would not agree election results have been changed to manually Conference Committee on the PIB moved that At this time, Kingsley Chinda, leader of the to the call to divide the House, then his minority transmitted," he said consideration of the report of the bill be stepped PDP caucus from Rivers raised a point of order caucus would cease to be part of the process. The Speaker, in a response, said that the specu- down till further notice. And so the evil day on asking the chair to divide the House so that the At that point, Elumelu led opposition mem- lations were unfounded and that a report that had the petroleum reforms bill was postponed not- votes could be taken via head count.