Bankole dissolves 71 Reps' committees

Bola Badmus and Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 19.03.2008

SPEAKER, House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, may have tactically dissolved 71 of the 72 committees of the House as he announced on Tuesday the expansion of the composition of the selection committee, which he said would see to the review of all the committees before resumption on April 8.

Bankole made the announcement on the floor before the conclusion of the day’s plenary by asking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Action Congress (AC) caucauses in the House to forward the names of their floor members that would be made members of the Selection Committee.

According to the speaker, the floor members were those who were neither chairmen nor deputy chairmen of the committee of the House, saying the immediate task of the expanded selection committee would be to review the composition of the special and standing committees of the House.

The selection committee of the House of Representatives is headed by the speaker and, according to findings, currently consists of 26 members, with the responsibility of constituting and appointing all the committees of the House.

Bankole said once the expanded selection committee did its work to review the status of the committees of the House, its report would be debated by every member before formal announcement would be made in respect of who would be appointed as chairmen and deputy chairmen as well as members to which committees.

“ Every member will be involved in who gets what,” the speaker said, declaring that a situation whereby a member would belong to eight committees while other would belong to barely two would no longer be tolerated.

The speaker requested each member of the House to forward to the selection committee two committees to which he wanted to belong with the maximum put at five.

According to the Speaker, the selection committee was to use the opportunity of the two- week recess, when the plenary sitting would be suspended for the Easter celebration, to conclude its assignment.

Briefing newsmen after the sitting, Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Honourable Ezuiche Ubani, said the expanded selection committee was to look at the structure of the existing committees with a view to putting competent people in the areas needing their services most.

Ubani, who noted that the House had such people in abundance, said there was the need to put round pegs in round holes because the House was committed to tracking the 2008 budget as well as subsequent budgets while performing its other legislative functions effectively.

“The idea behind it is to put the right people in place to make them perform in areas of their competence,” he said, adding that the House was going to be active and so, the committees needed to be made more effective.

He pointed out that based on the commitment of the House to tracking the budget and carrying out other duties, committees such as Legislative Budgeting, Legislative Compliance and Public Accounts Committee had to be strengthened.