House of Representatives
By Kunle Akogun
Clerks of the Senate and House of Representatives, Mr. Benedict Efeturi and Alhaji Muhammed Sani-Omolori, respectively Tuesday canvassed a graduated reduction in the allowances of lawmakers who consistently skip plenary sittings.
The duo made the submission at a meeting of Secretaries General (Clerks) of parliaments at the on-going 125th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Bern, Switzerland.
The issue of consistent absenteeism of members of parliaments from plenary sittings without cogent reasons Tuesday engaged the attention of the heads of parliamentary bureaucracies who accompany their various heads of parliament to the Bern Assembly and it formed the kernel of a paper presented by the Secretary to the South African National Assembly, Mr. Kamal Mansura.
In his presentation, Mansura suggested among others the “deduction of parts of a truant legislator’s salary if absent for 15 consecutive sitting days without leave of the House”, adding that “if absent for 30 consecutive days, without leave of the House, the member should lose his/her seat in the House”.
Supporting this measure, Efeturi told THISDAY that members who consistently absent themselves from sittings could be made to lose part of their allowances or salaries like it is being done in other parts of the world.
On his part, Sani-Omolori said the graduated reduction in the allowance of absenting lawmaker “will be one area we can look at in terms of trying to enforce the rule on 181 mandatory plenary attendances, considering what the allowances of members mean to them”.
They said rather than placing undue emphasis on the suspension of erring members, other measures could be introduced “that would tell them, look you will lose this if you don’t do this, and if you go ahead and do this, we will also graduate what you will lose”.
On whether this suggestion would go down well with the lawmakers, Sani-Omolori said: “I think the presiding officers and the various principal officers and even the members themselves should be interested because it would mean that the parliament is well run.”
The two heads of the Nigerian bi-cameral legislature, however, said they had never had any cause to sanction any lawmaker for truancy “because no member has defaulted in the 181 minimum attendance of plenary so far, based on records available”.
Efeturi explained that what many people might view as truancy on the part of some lawmakers is not correct because, according to him, “If a member comes in, signs his name and goes out, he may have gone to attend a committee meeting”, adding: “You know, committee meetings are part of the parliamentary business, they are an extension of the plenary.”
Sani-Omolori said: “In practical terms, we have problem trying to track members’ attendance”, adding, “This is not because members have not been fulfilling this constitutional provision, but enforcement mechanism is one area that we need to look at.”
He asked: “What happens if a member does not make up the minimum attendance requirement, to what extent can you go and in trying to ensure that the constitution is strictly adhered to?”
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