Members of the House of Representatives have begun
lobbying for choice office spaces just three days after
Speaker Yakubu Dogara inaugurated an Ad Hoc Committee on
Welfare to facilitate the settling down of the 360 lawmakers
for their legislative duties in Abuja.
The committee was inaugurated on Tuesday on his behalf by
the Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun.
The committee, which is chaired by Bashir Baballe –Illa is
charged with the responsibility of allocating offices and and
equipping the lawmakers’ offices as well as processing the
payment of their allowances.
However, The PUNCH learnt on Thursday that soon after the
committee took off, disagreements ensued among the
lawmakers over choice of offices.
Findings on Thursday showed that many members had
already written to the Sergeant-at-Arms to the National
Assembly demanding that certain offices be retained for
them.
It was gathered that such letters came mainly from the
returning members of the House.
A National Assembly official source who confided in our
correspondent said, “On the take-off of the committee, some
of the letters were referred to the committee, conveying the
demands of the members.
“I think the problem is that there are persons who have some
sort of attachment to particular office spaces and they have
asked that they(offices) should not be re-allocated.
“There are members who are equally not comfortable with
this idea and they have complained.”
It was gathered that the most sought after offices were
those located on the third and the fourth floors of the House
of Representatives New Building.
Offices on the fourth floor are the most sought after because
of their proximity to the offices of the speaker and other
principal officers.
By tradition, the speaker, the deputy speaker, the House
leader, the Chief Whip, the deputy leader, the Minority leader
and other principal officers occupy offices on the fourth
floor.
Other offices on the same floor and the third floor are shared
in order of ranking or the influence of the occupants.
Findings indicated that a member from one of the South-
South states, said to have been in the House since 1999,
pasted a bold notice on the office he occupied in the 7th
Assembly, saying that he would want to retain the same
office.
The message read , I am a returning member and I will like
to retain my present office.”
Several returning members pasted similar notices on the
third floor.
Out of the 360 members of the House, only 127 are returning
from the 7th Assembly set. The majority of 233 lawmakers
are new comers.
One senior member told our correspondent that the squabble
over offices was “unnecessary “ because the tradition was
that offices were allocated according to seniority or
“ranking.”
“If you go to the chamber, it is the same ranking that
decides how seats are allocated. Front rows are for principal
officers and the most senior members in that order,” the
member added.
Our correspondent made unsuccessful efforts on Thursday to
get Baballe-Illa a to comment on how his committee was
handling the issue.
However, a member of the committee, Abdulrazak Namdas,
said they were ready to address any issues raised by
members.
He disclosed that one step taken so far was to allow any
member who wished to keep their offices to do so.
“Yes. We have made it a policy such that if you are a
returning officer and you want to retain it (office), we allow
you to retain it,” Namdas stated.
Copyright PUNCH. All rights reserved. This material, and other
digital content on this website, may not be reproduced,
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in
part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Post a Comment