By Disun Amosun
Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and his Deputy, Hon. Idris Wase yesterday clashed over Gbajabiamila’s ruling to have Thursday’s plenary closed early as Wase challenged the ruling saying that it was not in the interest of members as a whole.
It would be recalled that the Speaker had towards the close of plenary yesterday announced that due to his commitment to attend a 2.pm assignment Thursday at the House premises, the day’s plenary must end latest by that time to allow him honour the invitation for the handing over ceremony of the Legislative Monitoring Initiative, LMI being put together by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies NILDS.
“I will be attending the LMI assignment and as such the order paper for tomorrow’s plenary should be packaged in a way that will allow for early adjournment so I can meet up”, the Speaker announced.
The announcement came midway as the Speaker was giving details of the burial arrangements of the mother of a member, Rep Aisha Dukku in Kebbi State, when he just delved into the early plenary ruling as if an afterthought.
Up shot Wase from his seat immediately after the announcement to complain about the procedure as the House rule was that if the presiding officer at plenary should have course to leave the chamber, he should hand over to the Deputy, adding that this had been the normal Legislative procedure that operates over the years.
He added “Mr Speaker, parliament is not about ‘I’ but we as decisions must be collective and not about an individual.”
A rather taken-aback Speaker calmly after the Deputy Speakers remarks went on to complete the burial arrangements, during which time he must have composed his thoughts on his reply.
“This is the first time in the history of this House that a Deputy Speaker will be challenging the Speaker on his ruling, and I have stayed long enough here to know what I’m talking about,” the Speaker replied. Attempts by Rep Wase to ask if he had no right to express his opinion on the issue was rebuffed by the Speaker from the chair and he went on to adjourn plenary till Thursday 11.00am.
This came after the House Leader Rep Al Hassan Doguwa’s intervention on the matter that the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business should not pack the order paper with much agenda to allow plenary close early for the Speaker to honour his invitation.
