NASS: Tension Over Acting Clerk’s 18-Man Panel To Train Senators, Reps

A cold war is brewing between the Acting Clerk to the National Assembly, Mallam Sani Magaji Tambuwal, and the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) over a curious 18-man committee set up to train Senators and members of the House of Representatives for the 10th National Assembly.

Neither of the two parties appears ready to concede to the other on the management of the programme.

The Acting Clerk to the National Assembly has opted for a new committee to conduct the training instead of allowing the NILDS do it as statutorily mandated.

In effect, civil servants in the National Assembly will now conduct the training of the new lawmakers.

Investigation revealed that the decision to strip NILDS of the mandate to induct and train lawmakers was taken on January 9, 2023 without the approval of the National Assembly leadership.

It was gathered that the Acting Clerk shunned warnings by some management staff of the National Assembly that civil servants do not have the capacity to orientate the new lawmakers.

Findings confirmed that the Clerk raised the 18-man committee on January 10, 2023, including two slots allocated to NILDS on the team.

Members of the committee are the Clerk to the Senate; Clerk to the House of Representatives; Secretary Legal Services; Secretary, Inter-Parliamentary Relations; Secretary, Procurement and Supplies; Secretary, Health Services; Secretary, Estate and Works; Acting Secretary, Human Resources and Staff Development; Acting Secretary, Finance and Accounts; Acting Secretary, Research and Information; Acting Secretary, Special Duties; Acting Secretary Planning and Legislative Budget; two representatives of the Secretary, National Assembly Service Commission (NASC); and two officers from the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) from the rank of Assistant Director and Director. Senate Table Duties will serve as Member/Secretary

Among others, the committee is expected to do the following:

•Planning and coordinating orientation/induction programme for the 10th National Assembly.

•Preparing a detailed budget on the financial implication for conducting the programme

• Identifying suitable dates and venue for the programme

• Coordinating the logistics involved in the implementation and conduct of the programme

A top source in the National Assembly said: “In spite of the fact that we have an institute, civil servants have now been directed to start looking for resource persons and other support staff for the training.

“The Acting Clerk has preference for the outsourcing of the training than using the institute which is an organ of the National Assembly.

“Already some staff have been scrambling for ‘juicy’ aspects of the training programme, including supply of training kits since a huge budget has been set aside for the exercise.

“It has never been the responsibility of the Clerk to the National Assembly to organize training for lawmakers. We don’t know the motive behind the so-called new initiative.

“Take the case of the Judiciary, the National Judicial Institute (NJI) over the years handle induction of top judicial officers, including newly-appointed judges.

“Our NILDS has earned a global reputation such that lawmakers from most African countries now enroll in our institute for training.”

A management staff of the National Assembly said: “We have cautioned the Acting Clerk against sidelining the NILDS because by statute (the enabling Act), inductions are the prerogative of the institute.

“The leadership of the National Assembly had severally met with past Clerks and the institute in the past few years and specifically directed NILDS to carry out inductions for lawmakers.”

The Acting Clerk to the National Assembly was appointed on November 18, 2022.

A source in the Acting Clerk’s office said: “The induction of 10th National Assembly lawmakers has many components. There is no usurpation of the powers of NILDS.”

At NILDS, the Director-General, Prof. Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman was said to be officially out of the country.