•Ask CJN to drop GCON for Speaker …sets up ad hoc committee to probe Minister of Special Duties
Members of the 10th House of Representatives during Wednesday plenary unanimously protested against President Bola Tinubu’s decision to confer a lower national honour – Commander of Federal Republic (CFR) on Speaker Tajudeen Abbas during the national broadcast to commemorate Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day anniversary.
The lawmakers who spoke during the debate on a ‘Multi-partisan motion on the inappropriate discrimination against the House of Representatives and the presentation of the chamber as inferior to the Senate’, sponsored by Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Phillip Agbese were unanimous in challenging the rationale behind the conferment of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) on the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio and Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
In his lead debate, Agbese who frowned at the development, argued that the “National Honours Act of 1964 does not explicitly prescribe the conferment of specific honours, such as the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) for the President of the Senate or the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and that these distinctions are rooted in customary practice rather than statutory requirement.
“The House further note that the honour of GCON is not restricted to any particular office or individual but can be awarded to any distinguished Nigerian deemed deserving by the President, as evidenced by the recent conferment of GCON on Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala by former President Muhammadu Buhari, this House acknowledges the flexibility inherent in the National Honours system and the prerogative of the President in the allocation of such distinctions.”
While stressing that the conferment of the Commander of the Federal Republic on the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy President of the Senate perpetuates the inappropriate subordination of the Speaker to the President of the Senate, Agbese called for redress.
In his remarks, Minority Whip, Hon. George Ozodinobi said: “I wouldn’t be talking from the standpoint of opposition. But I am indeed saddened that each regime that comes, they keep on repeating what their predecessors did. I think something that is very constant, they say, is change.
“I wouldn’t want to say that the president is a listening president. There are indications to show that he is not. But I am thinking that what he has already pronounced needs to be changed before it is confirmed.
“Because we can’t continue to be repeating the mistakes of the past. So he has every opportunity to respect the 360 members of this House who have also fought so hard to bear the responsibility of certain policies of this Government. We are the people that have already tried to calm the entire country down with our number.
“We need to be respected in that form. As other people argued, we are not talking for the person who is sitting as the Speaker. We are talking for the institution.”
While venting his view, Hon. Dominic Okafor who cited the provision of Section 47 of the 1999 constitution, said: “I want to read out now, which states that there shall be a National Assembly for the Federation, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. He never said that one is superior to the other.”
On his part, Hon. Ali Issa said, “I am from Gombe State, and I am the minority whip of the 10th Assembly. Mr. Speaker, just like my colleagues who spoke about section 4 of the Nigerian constitution, the section clearly stated the creations of the National Assembly, and it clearly specified that the National Assembly is comprised of 109-member Senate and 360-member House of Representatives.
“So, the section of the constitution did not give any other chamber or did not mention that a chamber is higher than any other chamber.
“Mr. Speaker, my honorable colleagues, the present Minister of Special Duties is a former member of the House of Representatives, and I believe in his time he will not allow this mistake to continue. While I advise our relevant committees to invite the Honorable Minister of Special Duties and ensure that this amendment or this correction is done, and also they have to report back to this House within seven days, I move that with immediate effect we mandate the relevant committee to invite the Minister of Special Duties with all the relevant committee members that are in charge of this award, and also they should make the necessary corrections with immediate effect. The issue is about the House of Representatives.
“It is not about Mr. Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, but it is about the House of Representatives. Putting the House of Representatives Speaker, the same with the Deputy Senate President position, would not be acceptable by this House chamber. So I call on Mr. President and all the relevant leaders to quickly intervene and make these corrections.”
In his intervention, Hon. Cyril Godwin argued that the National Honours Act of 1963, Section 1, Subsection 3 stated that: “Subject to Article 2 of this warrant, the numbers of persons appointed to the different ranks of the orders in any calendar year shall not exceed 8. In the case of Grand Commander, which is what is in contest here, in the case of Grand Commander, 2 as respect to the Order of the Federal Republic and 10 as respect to the Order of Niger.
“What it simply means is that for GCON, for every calendar year, it shall not exceed 2 in line with the National Honours Act. So if the Senate President has been given 1, it therefore means we are going to ask in our resolution as well, that the CJN shall relinquish his own for the Speaker, not necessarily Tadu Jinn, but for any Speaker of the House of Representatives, until we amend this Act. You cannot exceed 2 in line with this Act.
“In terms of the number, we are raising our issues in terms of criteria. It has nothing to do with the Act.
“If this is what is stated in the Act, it is for the people who are doing that to consider. And the Order of Protocol that we are referring to was approved by both chambers to place us to where Mr. Speaker is. And so if you are asking, and if you are doing, just like it is automatic for Mr. President, the moment he assumes duty as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Vice President they have, it is automatic.
“It is not also out of order to have the Speaker and the Senate President in the other category automatically. Please, my brother, I think it is time for us to respect the institution to do the right thing that will promote us and give us our placement in the community. Thank you very much.”
While speaking, Majority Leader, Hon. Julius Ihonbvere who doubles as Head of Government Business in the House, said: “Ordinarily, I should be speaking to defend the government. But I also have a responsibility and duty to correct the government when it is doing something that is not right. Fortunately, we have a government that listens and a President that listens.
“I want to especially appreciate my colleagues. Without party restriction or consideration or any consideration whatsoever, I have unanimously agreed that there are several amendments we need to make both in the Constitution and in the Honours Act in order to correct historical injustices and administrative miscarriage of responsibilities. It is clear that we are not just talking about the current occupants of these positions.
“No. We are talking about putting things in the right perspective. And what is good for the goat is also good for the ram. I used that because my people understand that better than goose and gander. Mr Speaker, even when you look at it that the Speaker of the House gets the same honour as the Deputy Speaker of the Senate, there is a miscarriage there. They are not on the same level.
“In fact, the honour given to the Deputy Senate President is higher than that of the Deputy Speaker. So if we are going to deal with it holistically, the Senate President and the Speaker should have exactly the same thing. And the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker of the House should have the same.
“And we should amend the motion to say we are calling on the government not to just take the light and pride of correcting this error now, but to go back into the past and also correct it to other Senate Presidents, Speakers, and Deputy Speakers and Deputy Senate Presidents so that we can at least set a path of fair play, of social justice, of fairness to one another, and give honour to whom it is due.
“Finally, Mr Speaker, because I know the media will say look at them, instead of talking about food, instead of talking about strike, instead of talking about roads, we are not talking about titles for ourselves. Some of us, and many of us already have enough titles.
“We are talking about the respect for the institution. We are here for four years, we don’t know who will be here tomorrow. We want to receive the real message and talk about other issues.
“So, I want to appeal that the issues here, they have to do with history, with tradition, with correcting past injustices and miscarriage of recognition and constitutional order of things. Mr Speaker, I believe it is not too late to do this. We have a job to do to build consolidate and enshrine the equality of both houses. Very clearly, but we also have a job to do to assist the government to do the right thing when they need to do the right thing.”
Hon. Adebayo Adekojo urged the House to reject the CFR award, saying: “I think it would not be out of place for us to outrightly go ahead and amend this motion to reject the honours of CFR at this point.”
However in his intervention, Speaker Abbas who opposed his position, said: “Honorable, I don’t think it would be respectful to our president if we go to that extreme. Ours is just to appeal and show the reason why things should change.
“It is not like we are trying to confront him or to say what he did is not appreciated. So I would want to kindly ask you to withdraw that prayer, please.”
In line with the Speaker’s request, Hon. Adekojo said: “Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, sir, I go ahead and withdraw the prayer in honour of you and Mr. President.”
While ruling, Speaker Abbas referred the motion to the Ad-hoc Committee to be chaired by the House Leader, while all the six zonal caucus leaders and the two regional leaders of North and South. And any other person that the committee may deem fit to co-opt will be members of the ad-hoc committee.
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