Special Correspondent, JOE EZUMA, examines the crisis in Rivers State House of Assembly, identifying the strategies of the opposing camps in battling each other…
If there are areas in which the scars of the nearly one year political storm that has raged in Rivers State remain apparent, they include the House of Assembly. The Assembly has not used the complex for the past seven months, although it has managed to discharge its legislative functions.
Gov. Rotimi Amaechi
Incidentally, Rivers legislature was once known as one of the best and vibrant Houses of Assembly in the country at the dawn of the current civilian dispensation in 1999. It particularly received high rating when Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, then Speaker from 1999 to 2007, became the pioneer chairman of Association of Speakers of Nigerian Houses of Assembly. Though it became a one-party Assembly in 2002 after the defection of Senator Magnus Abe, then Minority Leader on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it still retained its steam, especially with the likes of Tamunosisi Gogo-Jaja as leader.
When Gogo-Jaja handed over leadership of the House to Chidi Lloyd in the Sixth Assembly, it was a suitable replacement as far as Assembly watchers were concerned.
However, all these almost came to a tragic end when in July 9, 2013 the House was greeted by the battle for supremacy between now Governor Amaechi and Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike.
Trouble first struck when, in one of the sittings, Lloyd brought a motion on the floor of the House seeking a vote of confidence on Amaechi. Pro-Amaechi lawmakers did not hesitate, as they called for its approval. However, this position did not go down well with the five opposing lawmakers, which resulted in an uproar on the floor of the House.
Earlier on May 9, 2013, the House had, through a majority vote, suspended the officials of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state. The suspension came after a deliberation on an Interim Report of the House Committee on Local Government over allegation of misappropriation of funds levelled against the leadership of the council amid the ousting of Godspower Ake as PDP chairman in the state.
What could be described as climax came after the five anti-Amaechi lawmakers – Victor Ihunwo, (Phalga III), Evans Bipi (Ogu/Bolo), Michael Okechukwu Chinda (Obio/Akpor I), Kelechi Nwogu (Omuma) and Martin Chike Amaewhule (Obio/Akpor II) – attempted to remove Otelemaba Amachree from office as Speaker, which resulted in a free-for-all that led to injury on some of the lawmakers.
Since then, Lloyd has been standing trial, while the Assembly complex has remained under lock and key by the Rivers State Police Command.
Although the government obtained court order for the opening of the Assembly, less than 24 hours of the implementation of that order, the police put the premises under lock and key again, ostensibly to prevent further bloody clashes by legislators.
The crisis took another dimension when members of the Assembly passed the state’s 2014 Appropriation Bill into law in the Government House, Port Harcourt. The action of the lawmakers, according to sources, was to prevent the police from stopping them from sitting. Earlier, the members of the House loyal to Amaechi had tried to hold plenary in the complex on Moscow Road, but were barred by the state’s police command, which claimed to be relying on the law.
Presenting the budget, Amaechi had told the 23 lawmakers present that he proposed to spend N485.5 billion this fiscal year. He explained that the budget was 0.98 per cent lower than the N490.32 billion he presented in 2013. The governor, who had promised not to abandon any project by his exit time, added that the focus of the budget was the completion of ongoing projects in the health, education, roads, transport, power, water, agriculture and other critical sectors.
Amaechi had attributed the dwindling monthly revenue allocation to oil theft and inability of the federal government to take decisive steps in tackling leakages and fraud.
But the state chapter of PDP described the presentation and passage of the budget into law on the same day as illegal and criminal.
“The presentation and passage of the 2014 budget outside the hallowed chambers of the Rivers State House of Assembly is criminal. This illegality cannot be allowed to stand,” Felix Obuah, the chairman said.
Obuah, who added that he had earlier drawn the attention of the people of the state to the governor’s plan to relocate the Assembly to the Government House, said he had been vindicated by the recent development.
He claimed that Amaechi was bent on causing confusion in the state, maintaining that the presentation of the budget outside the Assembly complex was unconstitutional.
The party, on April 15, 2014, issued a statement, that it was saddened by the reckless manner the governor has thrown the state into a debtor entity in the past three years by borrowing billions of naira for no just cause. It wondered why “lawmakers that are not properly constituted and lack the legal standing to make laws and give authorisation or undertake such legal actions will abuse the privilege of having access to certain facilities recklessly dispose themselves to aiding Governor Amaechi to squander the state resources and destroy the future of the people”.
Prequel to this reaction was the Assembly’s approval of another round of N50 billion bond for the administration.
To the PDP, the additional N50 billion bond by the governor was unnecessary, as it wondered where the monies, the internally-generated revenue (IGR), federal allocations and loans collected had all gone.
It further accused the governor of sourcing the loans for political purposes; to enhance his sole sponsorship of the APC activities, in expectation of a presidential ticket from the party.
Despite the PDP opposition, the Assembly has been carrying on its functions in the Government House, working on bills including the Rivers State Domestic Violence Prohibition Bill, 2014, and the Rivers State Chieftaincy and Council of Chiefs Bill, 2014, that had been committed to two different committees.
As the earlier controversy seems to have gone down, another round has started, following the consent given by the legislators to the governor to obtain N4 billion from the Federal Government/Central Agriculture Loan Scheme.
The government has, within the past two months, obtained the consent of the legislators to access N100 billion bond from the capital market. It has also taken N35 billion out of the N52 billion saved by the administration to enable it attend to pressing state matters. The money totalling N135 billion was said to have been intended by the state for the completion of on-going projects following the resolve by government not to abandon any project started by it. The Assembly recently gave approval to the governor to renew a N4 billion agricultural loan from the Zenith Bank Plc to enable it make significant inroad in the agriculture sector following the successful and judicious utilisation of the same amount borrowed in 2012.
The loan, which is under the Federal Government of Nigeria/Central Bank of Nigeria (FGN/CBN) commercial agricultural credit scheme, is part of federal government’s efforts at boosting agriculture at the grassroots through the states. A whopping N200 billion was set aside for the states to access.
The approval followed a letter of request for approval by the governor for renewal of the loan from Zenith Bank. According to the letter, the former loan obtained had been diligently repaid and the last instalment would be due and completely repaid by the end of the month.
The government had in a letter dated March 5, 2014, with reference number GHPH/GOV/4/VOL.1/56, stated: “I write to intimate you of the Rivers State government’s desire to renew the N4 billion from the Zenith Bank under the FGN/CBN Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme, which is available to all states of the federation.
“In 2012, the Rivers State government took a loan from Zenith Bank Plc. under the same scheme which was utilised for the establishment of fish farms at Buguma, Ubima, Opobo and Andoni, all in Rivers. The government has been diligent with the repayment, and last instalment will be due and completely repaid by the end of this month.”
Even at that, Obuah had alleged that the Rivers legislators had no jobs other than gathering at a place in the Government House and approve loans for Amaechi, branding their sittings illegal.
The controversy over loan re-echoed in July when the Assembly approved another round of $280 loan for the administration which the PDP also opposed, alleging that Amaechi was asking for the new loan to prosecute the 2015 election for APC.
Rivers government, however, took on the PDP on the loan request by Amaechi, accusing it of distortion and mischief. Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, in a statement, described the PDP statement as containing tissues of lies, being misleading, stressing that the Amaechi administration takes its insistence on transparent and accountable governance seriously and would therefore continue to put out the facts of the matter as they concern the finances and economy of Rivers for the Rivers people to see.
Shedding more light on the issue, Ibim explained that the Rivers government applied for and secured a loan package from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank in 2012 for the World Bank-assisted water scheme in the state.
According to her, the rule is that the national government would need to endorse the release of the loan after the House of Assembly would have approved.
“Everything else was done, but for reasons unknown to the Rivers State Government, the responsible officers on the Ministry of Finance failed to sign off the release of funds, thereby delaying the Rivers government’s robust water sector complete overhaul and rejuvenation; therefore denying the people of the state access to good water. Not willing to give up, the state government continued to push and the scheme with the loan was again approved in the 2014 budget. Now, the federal government has finally signed off for this fund to be drawn down for work to start. But due process required that the Rivers State House of Assembly endorsed it once more. This is what necessitated the re-presentation of the old loan to the House.
“But true to type, Obuah’s PDP, uncaring of the truth and in what has become its masterful display of ignorance and blind mischief, has announced that the state government is taking a fresh loan and that this is for the 2015 elections,” she said, adding that, unlike the PDP, the state government is focused on ensuring governance and service-delivery to its people until its last day.
“We are thankful for these engagements and wish to assure you that the Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi-led administration will never take your loyalty for granted nor breach this sacred trust, which you have reposed in us. The finances of our state are in the most credible hands, and we will ensure that they are used only to secure the lives of our present and future generations in our Rivers of possibilities,” Ibim stressed.
On his part, the Deputy Speaker, Leyii Kwanee, dismissed the PDP allegations of illegal sitting of the House, saying that the Assembly could not be faulted.
Kwanee insisted that the business of government cannot be grounded because the premises had been locked up.
“You all were witnesses here when we sat on the lawn and on Moscow Road to hold session because the police could not allow us entry into the premises of the legislature and we were tear-gassed,” he told newsmen.
Kwanee has support in Port Harcourt-based lawyer, Moses Oha, who dismissed those condemning both the legislature as sitting illegally and the approval of the loans.
As long as the members form a quorum, he said, wherever they sit within the state is immaterial and whatever they approve or decide on has the force of law.
“What constitutes a legislature or House of Assembly? Is it not the members? Remove the members and the House is nothing and could be converted to a hotel,” he argued.
The legal practitioner accused those attacking Amaechi and the legislature over sitting and approvals of trying to block the governor from having the money to run the government, “so that they can brand him a failure”.
“In any case, the court is there for any agitator or the injured to go and seek redress,” he added.
