Chairman of the Nigeria’s House of Representatives Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreement probing the various Chinese loans taken by the government since 2000, Rep. Ossai Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta), has said that the committee’s assignment was to protect the territorial integrity of the nation and future of unborn children.
Ossai said in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday that he asked those who are politicising the Committee’s work to hold their peace in the spirit of national interest and national security, according to The Nation’s report.
Ossai was reacting to a statement credited to a member of the House, Rep Wole Oke (PDP, Osun) faulting the investigative hearing on the bilateral agreements between Nigeria and China, alleging, “the Committee was functioning outside of its mandate”.
Ossai said his Committee “considers Hon. Wole Oke’s statement to be false in its entirety, unparliamentarily, unpatriotic and does not in any way reflect the trueness of the Committee’s mandate and productive outcomes the House Committee has recorded through its legislative oversight engagements on the subject matter.
“The Committee will like to clarify that Hon. Wole Oke is not a member of the House Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements; and thus may not be well acquainted with the mandate of the Committee with respect to the on-going public hearing on the bilateral agreements between Nigeria and China including the unique oversight technique adopted by the Committee to achieve its goals.
“Contrary to the Honourable Member’s claims, the House Committee on Treaties, Protocols, And Agreements is a statutory Standing Committee of the House of Reps, established in the spirit of sections 62(1) and 12 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), with powers as prescribed in sections 88 and 89 of the constitution, guided by the mandate/jurisdiction as provided in the Standing Order of the House of Reps especially Order 18(B), Rule 93.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the specific mandates of the Committee with respect to the current public hearing was pursuant to House Resolution no (87/09/2019) vide a Motion on “Transmission of all Treaties and Bilateral/Contractual Agreements by all Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to the National Assembly”.
The statement stressed that the House resolution which gave mandate to the Committee specifically asked the Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to transmit all signed, ratified and domesticated Treaties and other International Agreements both bilateral and multilateral to the Registrar of Treaties in the Federal Ministry of Justice and to the national Assembly.
It also required the Registrar of Treaties in the Federal Ministry of Justice to transmit the list of all ratified and domesticated Treaties and International Agreements to the National Assembly for further legislative action, while asking the President to ensure that all signed Treaties are presented to the National Assembly for domestication.
The resolution also asked the President to ensure early engagement and involvement of the National Assembly in the Negotiation Team of any Treaty and International Agreements to which Nigeria is interested and also ensure that all signed Treaties and other International Agreements are initiated and presented to the National Assembly as an Executive Bill and to stop all counterpart funding of all Agreements and Protocols with Financial implications until such agreements and Protocols are domesticated by the National Assembly
According to Ossai, by the resolution, the House mandated the Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements to as a matter of urgency, commence the reviews of all Treaties, Agreements and Protocols signed and ratified by Nigeria.
He maintained that premised on the resolution, the Committee decided to commence the review process from International agreements between Nigeria and China by inviting the Ministers who were either custodians or end-users of the proceeds of these agreements, saying, “how can someone then claim that the Committee is functioning outside of its mandate?
He further explained that the Committee was further mandated by House Resolution no. (HR. 144/05/2020) on the motion for a “Need to Review and Renegotiate Existing China/Nigeria Loan Agreements” , when the House resolved to mandate the Committee to examine all extant China/Nigeria loan agreements since 2000 with a view to ascertaining their viability, regularising and renegotiating them and to liaise with the Ministry of Finance, and the Debt Management Office to seek for the review or outright cancellation of the latest China loans to Nigeria, on the principle of force majeure in the light of the COVID-19.
“The Committees cannot effectively carry out the enormous responsibilities of reviewing the agreements with a view to ascertain their viability, regularization, domestication and possible renegotiation without reviewing the commercial contracts agreements upon which the facilities were secured,” he said.
.The Nation