Parliament This Week is a weekly special focused on bringing you up to speed with some of the most important developments around the legislators and the National Assembly you may have missed in the course of the week
Reps set to resume plenary sessions, Monday
The leadership of the House of Representatives has scheduled Monday, November 14, 2022, for the resumption of plenary sessions.
The new resumption date was communicated via a circular released on Thursday by the Clerk of the House, Dr Yahaya Danzaria.
This new date differs from the earlier scheduled date of November 15 set by the House before it embarked on a 3-week break for Budget Defence exercise.
Reps query NPC over 1.9 billion expended on National Summit
The House Committee on National Identity and National Population has raised eyebrows over what it described as a shallow presentation made by the National Population Commission as its justification for the sum of 1.9 billion naira it expended on a National Summit held in 2021.
Chaired by Rep. Lawal Idrisu, the Committee also queried the Commission over its expenditure of N118million on the design of a website, over five billion naira on a mock census and 23 million naira for welfare packages.
The committee sought to know how the 23 million naira was spent on welfare packages and the beneficiaries.
Reps move to abolish NDE, NEMSA
The House Ad-hoc Committee investigating Overlapping Functions of Government Agencies on Thursday faulted the continuous existence of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and the National Electricity Management Agency (NEMSA).
Stressing that both agencies are not living up to their mandate of providing employment for teeming unemployed Nigerians, as well as the weak metering system in the power sector. the Committee demanded a five-year performance assessment report from the NDE in order to justify its continuous existence.
Committee Chairman, Rep. Victor Mela (PDP, Adamawa) gave the ruling at an investigative hearing where both agencies, as well as the Nigeria Electricity Liability Limited (NELMC) and others, were invited and grilled by the Committee.
Reps vow to reintroduce Diaspora Voting Bill
The House Committee on Diaspora on Thursday pledged to reintroduce the Diaspora Voting Bill in a bid to enfranchise Nigerians living outside the shores of the country.
Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Tolulope Shadipe, disclosed this when the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) led by Abike Dabiri-Erewa, appeared before the Committee.
Dabiri-Erewa was at the National Assembly to defend the Commission’s 2023 budget and its 2022 budget performance.
NASS holds Summit on transparency in the Oil Sector
The National Assembly and other critical stakeholders have called for measures to enhance transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector to boost the country’s revenue.
These views were expressed at a Stakeholders Forum titled “The Legislative Transparency and Accountability Summit,” organised by the House of Representatives Anti-Corruption Committee held in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ogbonnaya Orji, Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), in his presentation, queried the processes surrounding the oil and gas sector as well as the fact that money develops wings and disappears during the point of payment and receipt as it concerns royalties.
Elizabeth Atime
Lizzy Chirkpi has a BA in French and is a senior reporter at OrderPaper. She has keen interest in photo journalism and video documentaries. Author of the book; 'Pourquoi Le Français,' she likes reading, traveling and watching movies.
