A muddle in the National Assembly

A muddle is developing in the National Assembly (NA), which would require the sagacity and quick intervention by its leadership to sort out.

The office of the Clerk of the NA is today enmeshed in a controversy that is rather distracting its functions as a pillar of support and if allowed to prolong will do incalculable damage to overall working of the NA. The incumbent Clerk has been engaged in a battle of wits, and in the last few days, a public exchange of words with the newly inaugurated National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), all in a bid to retain his seat after serving the number of years (60 years of age or 35 years of service) allowed a public officer.

The Clerk has been queried by the NASC and he has replied. Both the query and the reply are in the public domain. The NASC has now moved to finally pull the rug from under his feet by naming a new Clerk of the NA. We now await to see if there would be a cordial handing/taking over. But as these unsavoury happenings keep swirling around the portals of the National Assembly, readers might ask how it got into this sorry pass. The entire brouhaha began a few years back with agitations by members of the parliamentary staff for better conditions of service. After negotiations, here and there, the 8th Assembly approved many of their demands including a consolidated salary scale, training and improved welfare packages.

However, the leadership of the staff, the Clerk and his cohorts many of whom were due to retire in due course, seized the opportunity to include a demand for an extension of the retirement goal post from 60 to 65 years and 35 to 40 years of service. Curiously, they pushed these demands without the input of other stakeholders, such as the NASC and the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation. Actually, the tenure of Dr Adamu Fika-led NASC had elapsed and a new one was yet to be constituted at the time. The 9th Assembly that was rounding up was keen to complete all outstanding assignments. Somehow this request went through without the required diligence.

At the beginning of the 9th Assembly, it slowly dawned on many of the staff in the NA that they had been sold a dummy. Even though their demands have been met they realised that the financial benefit they hoped to gain from the new condition of service was subjected to availability of funds. On the other hand, since the last Assembly had proclaimed an effective date to kick-start the document, it meant that those who were to retire, stayed put. That was double jeopardy. The staff hope for progress had been blocked by their sit-tight seniors and the hope for financial benefits was not yet at hand. Then, another round of agitations started.

When the new NASC was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari in February, what they found on the ground as an immediate task before them was untying the gridlock caused by the matters surrounding the new condition of service particularly the issue of tenure extension that had caused so much bad blood among their staff. In doing that, the leadership of the NA decided to contact key stakeholders to come in for a meeting of minds on the contentious issues. The Head of Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi- Esan, and the former Chairman of the NASC, Dr Adamu Fika were among those who attended. After the meeting they sent in written inputs to the Senate leadership.

In her letter the Head of Service of the Federation, was dismissive of the entire procedure followed by the 8th Assembly to review the conditions of service of the staff of the NA. She said that the Clerk and other staff of the NA as public servants should have known the set of procedures for the attainment of such aspirations. As they wished to make changes in their condition of service, they needed the approval of the National Council on Establishment and the Federal Executive Council. They had no such approval. She then went ahead to dismiss the entire effort as a nullity:

“The amendment to the age of retirement of the public servants in the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) through the resolution of the 8th Assembly did not follow due process and will be difficult to implement, in other words, the change made in the condition of service is in conflict with or contradiction to the provision of the Public Service Rules, Pension Act and Guide to the Administrative Procedures in the Federal Public Service. If the resolution subsists, it has the implication of influencing/fueling agitation for similar changes by other government establishments, nationwide.”

Dr Adamu Fika, the outgoing Chairman of the NASC wrote in a similar vein. Besides, being the most recent Chairman of the NASC, Dr Fika was the first bureaucrat to superintend the National Assembly in its nascent form way back in 1990. As a permanent secretary in the Presidency at that time, he was given the additional responsibility, as part of the transition programme to civil rule, to build up the structure of the NA. He was there for four years supervising the setting up of offices and employment of the staff to man them, etc., before returning to the Presidency in 1994. He is a seasoned civil servant that had taught in the early 1970s at Abdullahi Bayero College, Kano (later Bayero University) then a campus of ABU Zaria. He left Kano for Borno State Civil Service where he served as permanent secretary for many years from where he transferred to the Federal Service. When he retired he was headhunted by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru to become a directing staff. It was after that assignment he was appointed to the chair of the NASC.

In his submission to the leadership of the NA, Dr Fika dwelt on the functions of the NASC, which in his view is the only organ vested with the powers to make regulations in respect of conditions of service for staff of the NA. He said: “In this regard therefore, unless the National Assembly Service Act 2014 is amended the resolution of the National Assembly pertaining to the 2019 Staff Regulations is ultra vires null and void. The 2019 Regulations were illegally tabled before the National Assembly when there was no Commission in place. It was not and is not within the competence of Officials, who are employees of the Commission to table such sensitive matters like the retirement of staff from Service at 40 years of service or 65 years of age whichever comes first. The issue of extension of pensionable years by 5 years is not in conformity with the provisions of the Public Service Rules.”

I guess there may be nothing more to add and the leadership of the NA will now have to take the correct path to do the needful. It is a pity that due to some whimsical adventurism by the outgoing Clerk, the legitimate demands of the NA staff would now be delayed. We have been on this path before. At least readers would recall what happened in 2006 when attempts were made to reform the 1999 Constitution. After plenty of work by the National Political Reform Conference to pick relevant clauses that needed changes, the matter met a brick wall in the National Assembly due to suspicions by some eagle-eyed members that a third term had been contemplated by President Obasanjo. The entire reform work was jettisoned.

The leadership in the NA would now have to go back to the drawing board. I am sure the NASC in consultation with the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation should be able to work out a quicker way to achieve the aspirations of the National Assembly staff without rigmarole.