The House of Representatives is once again embroiled in another alleged corruption scandal leading to the dissolution of the ad-hoc Joint Downstream and Midstream Committee investigating the importation of adulterated petroleum products. Adeniyi Adedeji Reports:
It is a known fact that the National Assembly is the bedrock of any democracy in the world. While under the principle of Separation of powers where the three arms of government — the legislature, Executive and Judiciary are independent and also serve as checks and balances of each other, the pivotal role of the lawmaking arm of government makes it as important as any other arm of government.
The Nigerian National Assembly is no different from any other legislature house anywhere in the world.
Be that as it may, the mere mention of the National Assembly to an average Nigerian connotes corruption. The reasons are not far-fetched, since the commencement of the fourth Republic in 1999, it has been from one scandal to the other, whether in the Senate or in the House.
It appears each Assembly is on a mission to beat the other Assembly as the most corrupt. Sadly, each Assembly has a major corruption scandal that is more pronounced.
Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise when the leadership of the House recently dissolved the ad-hoc Joint Downstream and Midstream Committee investigating the importation of adulterated petroleum products, the non-availability of crude oil for domestic refineries, and other critical energy security issues.
The dissolution of the committee came about four weeks after its inauguration over allegations of hijack and other irregularities.
Following the decision of the lawmakers to engage in media war, the House leadership decided that the committee would be succeeded by another ad-hoc committee with the same mandate.
TheHintsNews reports that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) had accused Dangote Refinery of refining petroleum products with high sulfur, a development that made the lower legislative chamber to intervene.
But the Deputy Spokesperson of the House, Philip Agbese had asked President Bola Tinubu to immediately dismiss the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), Mele Kyari and the Chief Executive of the NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, for allegedly stifling the economy’s growth due to the oil sector crisis.
Interestingly, 50 members of the House kicked against the call for the sack of Kyari and Ahmed, describing it as premature.
The lawmakers led by Billy Osawaru while addressing a press conference recently in Abuja said the call for the sacking of Kyari when an investigation was currently being carried out was premature, and made in bad taste.
Nevertheless, more facts came to light last following a newspaper report that an alleged $10 million bribery created disaffection within the ad hoc committee allegedly forcing the Speaker, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas to disband the committee.
The report added that loyalists of the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, are reportedly miffed by the Speaker’s action and are fighting back.
In a swift response, the spokesperson of the House said it was appallingly, some people went to town with speculations regarding the action of the leadership, with some making allegations of a rift between the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, while others alleged that there was an inducement for the appointment of a committee chairman.
He explained that the leadership of the House reserves the right to disband/dissolve an ad hoc committee whenever the need arises. Rotimi maintained that the action taken by the House to dissolve the Ad Hoc Committee on Oil and Gas Investigation did not contravene any rule of the House or any law of the land;
He added: “That at no time did the House leadership or anybody for that matter received inducement for the appointment of any committee chairman. It was an assignment diligently executed by the Selection Committee of the House between June and July 2023, which has a member from each of the states of the federation;
“That there is no rift whatsoever between the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker regarding this or any matter; the duo enjoys a robust and cordial relationship. The two Presiding Officers also have mutual respect for each other, and will not allow anything to come between them.”
In the same vein, Kalu said he was firmly in support of the dissolution of the joint committee. He explained that he did not also have any misunderstanding of any kind with the Speaker.
Kalu said contrary to media reports of alleged bickering, there was no conflict between him and Abbas.
Also, the man at the centre of the storm, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere debunked the allegation that he gave $1.7 million to the House leadership to secure the committee Chairman’s position.
Ugochinyere in a statement issued in Abuja by his Chief of Staff Ernest Njesi, said that it was only a stupid and childish mind to believe that he gave the Speaker 1.7m dollars.
According to him, it’s a false and nonsensical attempt by individuals with vested interests who want to provoke and divert attention from endemic corruption in the oil and gas industry.
In spite of the clarification by Ugochinyere, political analysts believed that it would be difficult to believe in the explanation provided, especially considering the fact that some members of the committee were angered over Ikenga’s alleged mishandling of the committee.
Investigation revealed that a dissatisfied member of the committee, Prince Okojie resigned before the committee was dissolved.
Without much ado, Abbas recently approved the appointment of members to the joint Senate/House of Representatives Committee on petroleum industry investigation.
The Spokesperson of the House said the urgency and importance of this matter have necessitated close collaboration between the Senate and the House.
Rotimi noted that the Leader of the House, Prof. Julius Ihovbere would serve as Co-Chairman, while Hon. Iduma Ighariwey, Hon. Gboyega Isiaka, Hon. Sada Soli, Hon. Fatima Talba, Hon. Tunji Raheem, and Hon. Patrick Umoh would serve as members.
Chronicles of past corruption scandal in the Green Chamber
In 1999, just two months into the inauguration of the House members, the Green Chamber was rocked by a certificate scandal involving Hon. Salisu Buhari, the then Speaker of the House. Buhari had claimed that he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1990; a diploma in accountancy from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, in 1988; and that he served under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 1991. Again, Buhari was said to have been born on January 3, 1963.
Checks revealed that at the time he contested, Buhari was 29 years old because he was born on January 3, 1970. However, the constitution pegs the age limit for a member of the House at 30. Not only that, findings further showed that he actually got admission into ABU, but he was withdrawn because he falsified his credentials. It was also revealed that Buhari did not attend University of Toronto in Canada and did not take part in NYSC.
Moreso, on June 6, 2007, Hon. Patricia Etteh became Nigeria’s first female Speaker. Just two months after her emergence, accusations of corruption were raised against her.
She was made to face an ad hoc committee over accusations that she had authorised the spending of N628 million on renovations of her official residence and that of her deputy, and the purchase of 12 official cars meant for the House of Representatives. Eventually, on October 30, 2007, she, alongside her deputy, Hon. Babangida Nguroje, were forced to resign.
In 2009, the House also instituted the power sector probe. However, the Chairman of the committee, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu was later accused of receiving bribes and allegedly annexing N5.2 billion from the rural electrification budget alongside other officials on the panel.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Green Chamber dug deeper in 2012 after the ad hoc committee set up to probe petroleum product subsidies came up with the finding that the government overpaid some markers to the tune of N229.7 billion between 2010 and 2011.
The chairman of the committee, Hon. Faruk Lawan, who has already carved out a niche for himself as“Mr. Integrity,” submitted the report, which contained a list of companies that had ‘defrauded’ the government, on the floor of the House.
Few days later, he became enmeshed in a bribery scandal. A video of him receiving and stuffing wands of dollar notes into his cap, ostensibly as a bribe from one of the marketers, emerged. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
Similarly, in the same 2012, a House Committee chaired by Herman Hembe from Benue State was also accused by the then CEO of the Security and Exchange Commission, Arunma Oteh of demanding millions during the probe of the Nigerian capital market.
Oteh, during the hearing publicly questioned the integrity of Hembe to continue the investigation after allegedly demanding N39 million and N5 million on separate occasions. She also said the lawmaker was sponsored by SEC to attend an investment summit in the Dominican Republic but he did not attend, neither did he return the estacode paid to him by the commission.
The 10th Assembly was no different as the N81.5 billion Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) probe under the then Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs and the current President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio further exposed the rot in the Green Chamber.
Surprisingly, acting managing director of the NDDC, Kemebradikumo Pondei,‘’fainted’’ during an interrogation. But Akpabio accused a member of the panel, Hon. Peter Nwaoboshi of being a major beneficiary of the sleaze in the agency.
“Who are even the greatest beneficiaries (of these contracts)? It’s you people nau,” Akpabio told the House Committee chaired by Hon. Thomas Ereyitomi.
“I just told you that we have records to show that most of the contracts in the NDDC are given out to members of the national assembly, but you don’t know about it, but the two chairmen know,” Akpabio insisted. His revelation led to the sudden death of the probe, nothing came out of it.
Also, in August 2023, an Ad hoc Committee of the House during an investigative hearing uncovered documents on how the National Agency for the Great Green Wall allegedly spent a whopping sum of N81.2 billion on planting 21 million trees across 11 frontline states.
After the media trial of the agency, parliamentary reporters who were on ground to cover the subsequent hearings were sent out of the hearing room after the Managing Director of the agency, Dr Yusuf Bukar, agreed to speak the language the lawmakers understand. That was the last time anything was heard about the probe.
Barely a year ago, Premium Times reported that a committee of the House charged with investigating job racketeering in government parastatals had been engaging in extortion of money from heads of federal ministries, departments and agencies, including those of tertiary institutions across the country.
The paper said its investigation revealed that the initial drama and tough stance of the so-called anti-corruption committee were orchestrated to gain credibility and intimidate agency heads before launching a well-designed scheme to extort money from them through fronts disguised as consultants.
After the extortion plan was revealed by the report, like others, the probe died a natural death and not to be heard of again.
It is a known fact that the extortionist style even makes some members of the Green Chamber to bring motions calling for probe of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government at each plenary.
Analysts believed that even matters that need no probe would be printed by some committees of the House to bless the pockets of individual members of the committees.
As it stands, no probe has been instituted in the National Assembly out of love for the country. It has always been a way of getting their own skeeze from respective agencies. The word “summon” has been so abused especially in the Green that it has even lost its meaning. No thanks to the ulterior motives of some members who are dishonorable in their ways.
With the latest corruption scandal, it is now glaring that the free-flowing toga of corruption proudly dawned by the Green Chamber would be difficult to remove.