Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - STAR INFORMATION: House of Representatives 8th Assembly Standing Committees

In addition, President Buhari has informed the world that he can't afford all the 36 (constitutional) ministers. Annoyingly, they've spent months configuring how to compensate loyalists for services to Dogara. Now, they'll expect us to spend months analysing the ethno-religious dimension of this 'rice' allocation - the mind boggles!

Malami

Prof Malami Buba

Department of English Language & Linguistics

Sokoto State University

PMB 2134, Birnin-Kebbi Rd,

Sokoto, NIGERIA

On 1 Nov 2015, at 23:37, Bode <ominira@gmail.com> wrote:

It could mean an inclusive house rule or it could be a recipe for dysfunction. With this arrangement, the minority party has the unusual power to set the agenda but also to block the agenda of the majority party if it so chooses. It is asking much of them to ask them to share responsibility when their sole ambition is to return to power.

On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 5:23 PM Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:

Ayo Obe:

You are partially correct in stating that "Ours would probably be an unusual democracy if opposition members were not allowed to chair some committees", but ours is  indeed an unusual democracy when:

(1)  you form as many as 97 Standing Committees, when the Ministries that they supervise have not even been specified by the President.  It is unlikely there will be more than 21 Ministries; even if you split them, to have more than 40 SCs is really ridiculous - but 97? Who would they supervise?  If you look at some of the names of the SCs, there are a few made-up ones there, apparently straining to form as many SCs as possible.

(2)  194 DIFFERENT Reps out of 360 members have LEADERSHIP positions; how can HALF of a team be Captains and Vice-Captains?  It looks as the Speaker is straining to have as many members as possible, Ranking and non-Ranking, many-term-members and rookies, have leadership positions.  What stops a ranking (returning) member to be Chairman of two committees and vice-chairman of one committee?  I don't think that new members should be Chairmen or Vice-Chairman unless they have played similar roles in State Assemblies.

(3)  Okay, there are 36 states.  Let us call that 40 for ease of reference.  There are 194 leadership positions.  Let us call that 200 leadership positions for ease of reference.  That means that on average - if you are distributing UNIFORMLY - there should be on average of 5 leadership positions per state.  How come my Ekiti State has ONLY 1 leadership positions (Chairman of some random Committee) while Kano has 14 leadership positions?  Kano should give up 4 to Ekiti State, and give up 5 to other states.

(4)  Okay, okay,  Ekiti has only 6 members in the House, while Kano has 24 members.  6/360 times 200 means Ekiti should have at least 3 members in leadership position, while Kano has 12 members  fair distribution. So Kano should give up two leadership positions to Ekiti under this arrangement.

(5)  More importantly, while I concede that a few - a very few - Committees can be headed by Minority party members, I believe that it is disrespectful of the Majority Party for the Speaker - a Majority Party member himself - to have the Majority Party share almost the same number of Leadership positions as the Minority party 

   APC Chairmen-----------49    APC Vice-Chairmen---------54................. Total - 103

   PDP Chairman -------- 44     PDP Vice-Chairman - ------40...................Total  84

   APGA Chairman - ------ 1    APGA Vice-Chairman------2..................... Total 3

   SDP    Chairman - ------1    SDP Vice-Chairman----------0.....................Total 1

   Vacant Chairman ------- 2    Vacant Vice-Chairman-------1.....................Total 3

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    TOTAL Chairmen------97....Total Vice-Chairmen.........97......................Total 194

(6)  In my own estimation, the Majority Party actually chairs 18 substantive Committees and Vice-Chairs 24 substantive Committees - substantive in my own estimation - while the Minority Party Chairs 24 substantive Committees, and Vice-Chairs 20 substantive Committees.  Some of these substantive committees go right to the core of the agenda of the Government of the day.   In short, the House is practically in the control of the Minority Party.  Was this the situation in the 5th, 6th and 7th Assemblies in which the present Minority Party was the Majority Party?  I do not believe so.

(7)  More worrying is that there are 11 Committees headed SOLELY by the Minority Party.  This should not occur.....

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

Committees Chaired and Vice-Chaired solely by the Minority Party

84	Local Content	Emmanuel Okon	Akwa-Ibom	PDP	Hassan Saleh	Benue	PDP
85	Environment and Habitat	Obinna Chidoka	Anambra	PDP	Boma Godhead	Rivers	PDP
86	Gas Resources	Agbedi Frederick Y.	Bayelsa	PDP	Albert Abiodun Adeogun	Osun	PDP
87	Ethics and Privileges	Ossai Nicholas Ossai	Delta	PDP	Emma Egwa	Kogi	PDP
88	Petroleum Resources (Upstream)	Victor Onyemachi Nwokolo	Delta	PDP	Mark Gbillah	Benue	PDP
89	Youth Development	Segun Adekola Alexander	Ekiti	PDP	Iboro Asuquo Ekanem	Akwa-Ibom	PDP
90	Women Affairs and Social Development	Princess Uchenna Obiageli N. Stella	Enugu	PDP	Owodaigha Ime Ekpoatai	Akwa-Ibom	PDP
91	Capital Market and Institutions	Yusuf Ayo Tajudeen	Kogi	PDP	Nwulu Tony Chinedu	Lagos	PDP
92	Rural Development	Ladipupo Adebutu	Ogun	PDP	Anaya Edwin	Ebonyi	PDP
93	Legislative Budget and Research	Timothy Golu S.	Plateau	PDP	Ochiglegor Idagbo	Cross-Rivers	PDP
94	Science and Technology	Beni Lar	Plateau	PDP	Onyemaechi Joan Mrakpor	Delta	PDP

TABLE:  Distribution of Chairmanship and Vice-Chairmanship – by State

S/N	State	# Members of House	#Chair	#Vice-Chairs	Total
1	Ekiti	6	1	0	1
2	Lagos	24	4	5	9
3	Ogun	10	2	4	6
4	Ondo	9	1	2	3
5	Osun	9	3	2	5
6	Oyo	13	4	1	5
	SW	71	15	14	29
7	Abia	8	4	2	6
8	Anambra	11	3	3	6
9	Ebonyi	6	2	1	3
10	Enugu	8	4	1	5
11	Imo	10	4	3	7
	SE	43	17	10	27
12	Akwa-Ibom	10	2	3	5
13	Bayelsa	5	2	1	3
14	Cross-Rivers	8	1	3	4
15	Delta	10	4	2	6
16	Edo	9	2	3	5
17	Rivers	13	3	5	8
	SS	55	14	17	31

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