Speaker: Uproar in House over moves to change new rule

Posted by admin House, Legislature Thursday, May 19th, 2011

The House of Representatives witnessed an uproar yesterday as an attempt was made to reverse its decision to adopt open secret voting method to pick the next speaker when a new parliament is inaugurated on June 7, 2011.
On Tuesday, the House tinkered with its rule to substitute the use of electronic voting machine with open secret ballot to protect the choice of candidate for the position of the speaker and deputy speaker.

As a result, Order II, Rule 3, (f) (i) and (ii) of the Standing Rule was amended through a motion brought to the floor by Mr. C.I.D Maduabum.
But as the plenary resumed yesterday, Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Buisness, Mr. Ita Enang, who was among members who approved the change of the rule moved to reintroduce the matter, contrary to the House rules that any matter ruled upon could not be reintroduce until a specified period.

Enang, who prepared the votes and proceedings that were circulated to members urged the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole not to approve it, saying that the amendment of any aspect of the House rules required that a proper motion must be brought to the House.
He said the proper way to go was to put the House on notice for at least a period of seven days.
Enang, now senator-elect, argued that the motion brought before the House by Maduabum to amend the rule to change the voting pattern was illegally done as it failed to put the House on notice for at least seven days as stipulated by Section 15 (6) of the House Standing Rule.

His argument drew flanks from members who keep shouting No! No! No! For over five minutes. Proceedings were halted as members threw jabs at him for dancing forward and backward Mr. Terngu Tsegba (PDP Benue) immediately accused Enang of double standards, saying he (Enang) was the person who moved a motion on Tuesday that section 15 (6) of the House rules should be suspended to allow for expeditious amendment of the rule.

Amidst the uproar, Bankole asked Ita Enang to respond to Tsegba’s allegation.
To the surprise of many members, Ita Enang stood up, cleared his throat and denied ever moving such a motion.
He subsequently challenged any member of the House to produce evidence to buttress the allegation that he called for the suspension of a section of the House to pave way for Maduabum to move his motion. The speaker thereafter announced to the floor that the amendment had become controversial and that there was a need for further consideration of the matter.

Bankole’s comment caused another session of uproar as members demanded an immediate suspension of Ita Enang for attempting to further ridcule the House in the eyes of the public. To calm frayed nerves, the speaker quickly announced that he had decided to approve the votes and proceedings of Tuesday that contained the open-secret voting amendment. Speaking after the plenary, a member, who lost his seat from the South-west berated Ita Enang for trying to mislead the House.

“How can somebody say yes yesterday and wake up today to say no on the same issue? Can you imagine the type of advice the speaker will be getting from the people he relied upon to guide him?
“This is why Nigerians don’t respect the House any more,” the member said.

-Sunwp_posts