The House of Representatives says its speaker should be conferred with the second highest national honour to place him in same category as the senate president and chief justice
In a protracted debate that lasted for almost two hours on Wednesday, members of the House of Representatives unanimoulsy rejected the title of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) billed to be conferred on the speaker.
The lawmakers asked the federal government to withdraw the national honour of the Grand Commander of Order of Niger (GCON) bestowed on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and confer it on the speaker instead so that the latter, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas, can be on the same pedestal with the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio.
These decisions followed a motion of urgent national importance moved by the deputy spokesman of the House, Rep. Philip Agbese (APC Benue) on Wednesday.
Leading the debate, Agbese argued that Nigeria operates a bicameral national assembly according to section 47 of the constitution and as such the speaker, who is the number four citizen of the country, is equal to the senate president.
“It would be recalled that on Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu announced the award of GCON on Akpabio and the CJN, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, while Rep. Abbas and the Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Barau Jibrin got the national honour of CFR.
Agbese bemoaned the wrong perception that has been ascribed to the House of Representatives as the lower chamber while the Senate as the upper chamber.
Contributions by lawmakers
In their contributions, Rep. Ahmed Jaha (APC, Borno) applauded the mover of the motion, saying: “İ commend the mover of this motion and I align myself with subsequent speakers on this motion. My contribution is to remind not only the chamber but whoever that is involved in such a process. Throughout the history of democracy, there have never been anything like Senate but Congress and Congress usually determines the fate of every country which is House of Representatives. We are not in confrontation but the committee should do the needful by not treating us different from the Senate because we are not either subservient to the Senate and neither are we holding brief for the Senate and we are not relegated by the Senate. “
On his part, Rep. George Ibezimako (LP, Abia) insisted that the title should be changed before confirmation. “I want to align myself with previous speakers. I would not be talking from the standpoint of the opposition but I am indeed saddened that each regime that comes they keep on repeating what their predecessors did. I think there’s something that is very constant and they say is change. I would not want to say the President is a listening President, there are all indications to show that he is not but I am thinking that what has already been pronounced needs to be changed before it is confirmed. We cannot continue to repeat the things of the past every opportunity to respect the 360 members of this House who have also worked so hard to bear the responsibility of certain policies of this government. We are the people that have been trying to calm the country down with our numbers. We need to be respected in that form. We are not talking about the person who is sitting as the Speaker but we are talking about the institution before now and the future,” he stated.
On his part, Rep. Ali Isa (PDP,Gombe), whio is the minority whip, demanded the special duties minister to correct the situation since he is a former member of the House. “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 kind of mistake to continue. I advise our relevant committees to invite the honourable minister and ensure that this correction is done and they have to report back to this house within seven days.”
The majority leader, Julius Ihonvbere (APC , Edo) while contributing to the debate, admitted that the timing of thje debate was wrong as given that many Nigerians are hungry. He however said the discussion is necessary to safeguard the institution of the national assembly.
According to him, “Ordinarily, I should be speaking to defend the government but I also have the 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 specially appreciate my colleagues without parting restrictions or any consideration whatsoever as unanimously agreed that there are several amendments that we need to make both in the constitution and in the Honors Act 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 but we are talking about putting things in the right perspective and that what is good for the goat is also good for the ram. I used that because my people understand goose and gander. Even when you look at it that the speaker of the House gets the same honor as the honor of the Deputy Senate President is a miscarriage there. They are not on the same level with the Deputy Senate President. Infact, the honor given to the Deputy Senate President is higher than that of the Deputy Speaker.
“I know that the media will say, look at them instead of talking about food, instead of talking about strike, talking about roads they are here talking about about titles. We are not talking about titles for ourselves. Some of us and many of us here already have enough titles. We are here for four years we don’t even know who will be here tomorrow. I want to appeal that the issues here has to do with history and tradition with correcting past injustices and miscarriages and recognition and constitutional order affairs. Mr Speaker, I believe it is not too late to do this.”
Point of order
The debate took a new turn when Rep. Hart Cyril Godwin (PDP, Rivers) raised a point of order, demanding that the House pass a resolution seeking for the CJN to relinquish his national honour to the speaker who is of a higher ranking.
“I wish to bring something to our notice, the National Honours Act of 1963 sections 1 sub-section 3 says; “Subject to article 2 of this warrant, the number of persons appointed to the different ranks of the orders in any calendar year shall not exceed (a) in the case of Grand Commander, which is what is in contest here. For GCON, every calendar year, it shall not exceed two in line with the National Honours Act. If the Senate President has been given one , it therefore means we are going to ask in our resolution that the CJN (Chief Justice of Nigeria) shall relinquish his own for the Speaker, not necessarily Tajudeen but for the House of Representatives till we amend this Act, because you can not exceed two.”
After a prolonged debate, the House therefore resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to be led by House Leader Rep. Ihonbvere, heads of zonal caucuses and other members witha charge to report back within three days.
