Colourless House of Reps furious service chiefs, ministers disregarded invitation for appearance

The House of Representatives which many Nigerians construe to be colourless and passive in the Ninth National Assembly was thrown into fury after service chiefs and ministers who were invited to appear before a committee on Wednesday disregarded the invitation. The political appointees in deeper disregard of the House, sent representatives to appear before the federal lawmakers. This has been a recurring incident since the inception of the present House of Reps.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, in his fury, berated the service chiefs and the ministers of relevant agencies for disregarding the invitation of the lawmakers.

The service chiefs and ministers of relevant ministries and agencies were invited to appear before the House, sitting together with chairmen of House committees on aviation, security and intelligence, police affairs, army, air force, defence, and land transport, to interface on the bandits’ repeated attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line. The House members were infuriated when representatives of the invitees stepped in to take the place of their principals for the interaction.  Deputy Speaker Wase, then, protested: “We do not have any doubt regarding your capacity and your role. As operational officers, you have the intel in terms of what has to be done, but I’m constrained as the deputy speaker to continue the meeting because the accounting officers are the ones that are supposed to be here while you give them the necessary support.

“I am saying with a heavy heart. No matter the assignment our generals are handling, I believe the parliament requires a listening ear. This is the house of the people. I am not happy expressing my disappointment.

“In all the agencies, none of all the chief executives that were invited came. Maybe we are considered to be jokers, but we are not jokers.”

The deputy speaker, therefore, cancelled the meeting, directing that the service chiefs must make appearance in persons,.