Again, N/Assembly as Whipping Boy

It would seem that try as the minders of the National Assembly may, the undeserved scourge of having the establishment serve as the whipping boy for profligacy in government, is likely to last for some time. The present stir in the public domain over the approval by President Muhamadu Buhari of the sum of N37 billion for the renovation of the National Assembly complex, constitutes just one more instance of undue excoriation of the institution, to wit – calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Even without bothering to obtain correct information on the matter, several commentators have gone to town with equally different versions of what they think of the situation. This is even with the explanation by the President of the Senate Ahmed Lawan in respect of the extensive state of dilapidation of the premises and facilities.

For instance, one commentator wondered how a building that was built for N7 billion in 1999 will require N37 billion to renovate in 2020. Others directed their grouse to the complement of huge sums of money released to the institution at various times and by successive administrations for the upkeep of its premises and facilities. Yet others consider the deployment of N37 bullion for the designated purpose as a mis-application of resources, given the state of dilapidation of infrastructure – especially roads across the country which also have a claim to funding from the national purse.

In another vein, the clarification by the Director of Information in the National Assembly Rollins Agada that the sum of N37 billion may not even be adequate for the exercise was celebrated by sections of the press with a veiled sceptic tinge, even as nothing remains closer to the truth in this matter. So far it would seem only a further clarification can assuage the spate of excoriation of the National Assembly over the instance of the government spending N37 billion to renovate the National Assembly.

It is therefore for good measure that the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs Senator Godiya Akwashiki has come out with further clarifications on the matter, which in any case should exonerate the National Assembly at least for now, from any misplaced blame. According to the distinguished Senator Akwashiki, the much touted figure of N37 billion is under the purview of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), and not the National Assembly. In the same vein, the fund is not part of the institution’s 2020 budget. It is the FCDA, as the Abuja landlord, that develops and maintains such strategic offices as the National Assembly complex. Hence it should have been more appropriate that the FCDA and not the National Assembly that should be on the spot. Could it then be that much of the commentators questioning the rationale for renovating the National Assembly for such a price, safely be assumed to   require further clarification on the justification of the renovation exercise and at the stated sum?

For a start, not many Nigerians know that the National Assembly is actually a tenant of the FCDA, and cannot even plant a single pole in the premises without the permission of the latter. The FCDA constructed the entire premises and equally renovates same. The resort to blaming the National Assembly in this matter simply constitutes a case of misplaced grudge.

Secondly, the humongous scope of renovation remains incontestable. As is common knowledge, the National Assembly complex comprises several gigantic buildings which were constructed over a period spanning more than 24 years from 1995 under the regime of General Sani Abacha, to the present time with President Muhamadu Buhari in office. Whereas the initial buildings which comprise the dome and the old office buildings may have cost N7 billion in 1995 -99, for obviously incontestable reasons, their renovation today cannot be within the range of N7 billion.

Besides, those buildings were ab initio inadequate for accommodating the 109 Senators and 360 Members of the House of Representatives, along with the complement of legislative aides, the legislative bureaucracy, as well as the complement of technical services that would cater for the needs of a population of over 25,000 persons who on a daily basis, invade the institution as of right being visitors, hangers-on and even beggars, from all over the country as well as beyond its borders. This is not to talk of the accelerated rate of wear and tear of the premises and facilities, courtesy of the poor standards of hygiene and diminished sense of care for public property by many Nigerians. Inevitably there has been an ongoing programme of upgrades which will continue for the next decade, that is placing such in conservative terms.

However, of a more significance import in the renovation exercise is the long delayed recondition of the seating arrangement in the two chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives. When they were commissioned in 1999 by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar regime, they were constructed in line with the perhaps then best-fit standards for parliamentary business. However, between then and now the world has progressed with respect to the advancement of information technology especially with respect to the conduct of legislative enterprise with relevant chambers coming with ICT assistance for legislative business. Legislative Chambers and meeting rooms now require provisions for work stations and ICT terminals under the new era e-parliament dispensation. Just as well parliaments these days establish media facilities that provide for the elucidation of their enterprise from their own usually populist perspectives. This dispensation automatically reduces any of the Nigeria’s legislative chamber including those in the National Assembly, not so configured to a mere archaic meeting room and just talk shop.

Hence while this column does not see the raging opposition against the renovation of the National Assembly for N37 billion as a case of crying wolf when there is none, it also identifies with the superior logic which properly positions this primary temple of democracy, as a foremost national heritage and symbol; a perspective that should justify the exercise and hence win the day.

Let the renovation therefore stand, please.