The ongoing strike of legislative
workers is having an effect on activities at the national assembly.
Although the police prevented the
aggrieved workers from gaining access into plenary on Tuesday, many lawmakers
were absent when the day’s proceeding began.
The staff are protesting their
withheld entitlement including consolidated salary increments and allowances
said to be owed since 2010.
Only 16 members of the house of
representatives began plenary, against the provisions of the 1999 constitution.
According to the constitution,
the house must form a quorum – which is one-third of the 360 members – before
plenary can hold.
But when plenary started around
12:11am – more than one hour after official time for resumption – TheCable
observed that only 16 lawmakers were on ground, 104 less than the required
quorum: 120.
ILLEGAL SITTING?
Section 54(3) of the constitution
states: “If objection is taken by any member of the Senate or the House of
Representatives present that there are present in the House of which he is a
member (besides the person presiding fewer than one-third of all the members of
that House and that it is not competent for the House to transact business, and
after such interval as may be prescribed in the rules of procedure of the House,
the person presiding ascertains that the number of members present is still
less than one-third of all the members of the House he shall adjourn the
House.”
As of when this report was filed,
25 more lawmakers had joined their colleagues who commenced proceedings,
putting the attendance at 41, still far less than the quorum.
WORRIES OVER LIKELY SHUTDOWN
When the sitting started, Femi
Gbajabiamila, majority leader of the house, denied reports that the national
assembly leadership is responsible for the workers’ grievances.
“Their strike has nothing to do
with the legislative arm of the leadership. It has to do with the national
assembly management,” he said.
“And it is illegal to stop
members of the national assembly from coming to work. And that even attracts
very serious sanctions. So we are appealing to them as well; they are not only
shutting down the national assembly but by extension, they are shutting down
the nation no matter how good their intentions are.”
Nicholas Ossai from Delta state
also called on the staff to end the protest.
“We are appealing on the workers
to see reason to stop the strike and to appeal to the leadership of the
chambers to liase properly with them,” he said.
Thereafter, Yusuf Lasun, deputy
speaker of the house who is presiding over the session, said the national
assembly leadership has been making effort to avert a shutdown of legislative
proceedings.
“We are doing our best to address
the issue. The legislative arm is the face of democracy and no attempt should
be made to shut it down,” he said.
The lawmakers also moved a motion
admitting President Muhammadu Buhari to address a joint session of the national
assembly during the 2019 budget presentation on Wednesday.
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