A member of the House of Representatives, Hart Godwin, has recounted how first time lawmakers suffered structural inequalities during plenaries after the 10th House was inaugurated two years ago.
Mr Godwin, a first term lawmaker, who represents Degema/Bonny constituency of Rivers State, said the new members were confined to an upstairs temporary chamber, separating them from ranking members who occupied the main floor.
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He said the seating arrangement made it difficult for the presiding officers (speaker or deputy speaker) to recognise the contributions of newcomers.
Mr Godwin shared his experience at the unveiling of the First Session of the 10th National Assembly Deliberative Barometer and Policy Focus Productivity Report (NASS-DBPFR) in Abuja on Thursday.
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The report, produced by Erudite Growth and Advancement Foundation (ERGAF-Africa) is a comprehensive digital scorecard tracking the performance of Nigeria’s 469 federal lawmakers between June 2023 and June 2024.
Mr Godwin’s complaint, however, only referred to the early months after the 10th National Assembly was inaugurated in June 2023. At that time, the plenary sessions of the Senate and the House were holding in temporary chambers because the permanent chambers were undergoing renovation.
The lawmakers later returned to the permanent chambers where first-timers became more visible in debates and proceedings.
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Mr Godwin, who represented Speaker Abbas Tajudeen at the event, said the seating arrangement at the temporary chamber of the House directly affected the visibility and contributions of new members.
“I am a first timer. When we were inaugurated, I discovered that we were using not one but two temporary chambers, one upstairs and one downstairs, connected by a screen,” he explained.
“The ranking members said that their rank must be respected, so the seats where the speaker decided was kept for the ranking members. Those of us who were first-timers were asked to go upstairs. We had to protest, and say no, that we were all equal,” he said.
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The lawmaker added, “When I raise my hand to speak upstairs, they will not see me. They will rather point at those who were seated and they were all ranking members,” he said.
Responding to the data from ERGAF Africa, he said, “Go to the place where you have those who performed well, they are all ranking members. That is the limitation of the barometer.”
Mr Godwin also lamented how presiding officers sometimes struggled to identify first-timers by name during plenary.
“Another limitation is that because we were first timers, it will be unethical for the presiding officer to refer to me as ‘that honourable with the red cap’ because he doesn’t know my name. I wasn’t his colleague in the 9th assembly,” he said.
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