Pay-to-play lawmaking?

 A ranking member of the House of Representatives, Ibrahim Usman Auyo, recently opened the can of worms that typically lets off an odious smell about the conduct of lawmaking in Nigerian legislative chambers. He alleged that the wheel of legislation was more often than not oiled by frontloading bribe money running into millions of naira at each instance, not driven by duty on the part of legislators. Lawmakers ordinarily were elected by constituents into the legislative chambers to hear out and process motions, petitions and bills on their behalf as championed by members representing them in those chambers. But reality, according to Auyo, is that if you want to get heard by your fellow lawmakers, you pay your way to get their ears.

The Jigawa State lawmaker, representing Hadejia/Auyo/Kafin Hausa federal constituency in the green chamber of the National Assembly (NASS), made the allegation in response to criticism by his constituents that he had little to show by way of sponsoring bills and motions on their behalf. Auyo’s defence to that charge was that such venture is financially prohibitive because a lawmaker, according to him, needs to pay between ₦1million and ₦3million in gratification to push stuff on the floor of the chamber. Speaking in Hausa during a meeting with his constituents, recorded in a video that lately ran viral, the lawmaker said: “Since I was elected as a House member in 2015, no individual has given me a bill to pass, either from Auyo, Hadejia or Kafin Hausa. They are just pretending.” And the catch: “Also, even the bills and petitions are paid for. You have to pay from ₦3million, ₦2million or ₦1million to present it. And after you present the bill, you must follow up by lobbying the whole 360 members of the House to accept the bill.”

While at it, Auyo defended his record on youth empowerment, claiming that 80 percent of his constituency projects targeted young people even though some beneficiaries usually sold the items they received. “I do distribute my (empowerment) things myself, and 80 percent out of 100 percent is for youths, I swear to Almighty Allah. My first motorcycle and car distribution was to the youths, no single elderly person benefited,” he said, adding: “Just recently, during the governor’s empowerment in Auyo, all the beneficiaries were youths. But you bought (an item) at ₦300,000, they sell it for ₦150,000 immediately  after collecting it.”

Auyo’s colleagues in the legislative chamber were naturally gutted by his claims and demanded that he provide corroborating evidence or face sanctions. Spokesman of the House, Akin Rotimi, led the clapback. In a statement, he said the allegation were unsubstantiated and, if left unclarified, risked undermining public confidence in the National Assembly. “Statements of this nature must be backed by verifiable facts and presented through the appropriate parliamentary channels,” he added.

Rotimi argued inter alia: “The leadership of the House has consistently encouraged members to engage with their constituencies during recesses and report on their stewardship. This commitment is reflected in frequent town halls and public hearings, including a series of midterm engagements held in June and July, presided over by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas. The National Assembly is an institution of records, with well-established and transparent procedures for introducing bills, motions and petitions, governed by the Constitution, House standing orders and parliamentary ethics. The insinuation that sponsoring a motion or bill is a ‘contract job’ involving bribes is inconsistent with these processes and must be clarified.”

National lawmakers are presently on recess and the spokesman said Auyo would be invited to substantiate his claims before the House when they reconvene. “Should he be unable to provide evidence, the matter will be referred to the House committee on ethics and privileges for appropriate consideration, in line with parliamentary procedure,” he added, stressing that the House was committed to fostering mutual respect among members and addressing grievances through due process in the collective interest of Nigerians while upholding the dignity of the parliament.

 “Auyo vs NASS: Self-interest becomes unenlightened when it does not reach beyond crass self-centredness.” 

Other House members were reported knocking Auyo for his claims. Deputy House spokesperson, Phillip Agbese, described the allegations as a reckless misrepresentation and insisted legislative procedures are governed by the Constitution and standing orders, which should guarantee transparency and equal access for all lawmakers without any financial outlay. He argued that the Jigawa lawmaker’s comments stemmed from ignorance. Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda, dismissed the allegations by Auyo, saying the House was looking forward to hearing from the lawmaker. “I have been in the House for 14 years, and I have never paid money for my bills and motions to be taken. I am taken aback by the claim by the honourable member. Perhaps, he will share his experience with the House,” he stated, adding: “I wonder why a member will pay money for his bills or motion to be heard. Who was the money paid to?” Member representing Lavun/Mokwa/Edati federal constituency of Niger State in the House, Joshua Gana, waved off Auyo’s claims, saying: “Moving motions and sponsoring bills are the primary reasons for being a legislator, and I have never heard or seen anything like that (giving bribe) in my life. We talk to our constituents daily, and when they have needs to be heard nationally,  we take it up immediately.”

Many stakeholders, however, saw in the Jigawa lawmaker’s comments another exposure – perhaps, unwitting – of deep-rooted sleaze suspected to characterise the conduct of lawmaking in this country, which is widely deemed opaque and underhanded. They thus called on the leaderships of both chambers of NASS to beam the searchlight inwards and honestly seek out the truth for possible remediation, not just crack down vindictively on Auyo for squealing on what might be a collectively held secret. After all, there have been members from past sessions of both the Senate and the House who alleged budget-padding by those chambers and were summarily suspended without diligent proof of inaccuracy of their claims. Auyo should be given the benefit of the doubt and dispassionate efforts made by the legislative chambers to ascertain the veracity of his claims, the stakeholders argued.

There are good reasons, in my view, to doubt the Jigawa lawmaker’s allegations on the surface level. He made the claims to defend himself against charges of non-performance by his constituents, and nothing is out of the remit of expediency for a desperate person seeking to bail out of a career-threatening bog in which he was stuck. Auyo, who was elected on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, has been in the green chamber for 10 years and you would wonder why he never blew the whistle concerning the alleged tendencies until his constituents called him out for non-performance. In other words, the allegations could be an opportunistic wild card played by the lawmaker to save his troubled career, without even faintly considering how they rub off on the institutional image. Self-interest becomes unenlightened when it does not reach beyond crass self-centredness. 

In any event, Auyo spoke at the grassroots in Hausa and perhaps did not envisage being documented and amplified, with the recording shared on national platform. That, of course, is a naïve way to reason in this digital age. But who knows what bit Auyo when threats of political waterloo stared him in the face.

But there are as well good grounds on which the Jigawa lawmaker’s allegations shouldn’t be dismissed offhand. The NASS has for long been dogged by accusations of corruption and monetisation of legislative processes, with previous sessions of the assembly coming under charges of having received financial inducements to process desired legislations. The alleged third term agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo that eventually fell through was a notorious example. And it isn’t that the current 10th NASS has been free of allegations of sleaze. There were reports earlier on this year that senators in the Senate committee on tertiary education and TETfund and representatives in the House committee on university education allegedly demanded a bribe of N8million each from university vice-chancellors to approve their respective institutions’ budgets. The reports blew over with time, but without convincing refutation by the lawmakers. 

As for Auyo’s allegations, asking the Jigawa lawmaker to substantiate his claims with “verifiable facts” is a tall order and may be a clever way of turning the table on him despite the fact. Bribe money is alleged to be involved, and givers are unlike to have asked for receipts even if such monies were truly circulated to sponsor bills and motions. Rather, the leaderships of the two chambers of the National Assembly should dispassionately, thoroughly and painstakingly audit their legislative processes – if need be, involving the anti-graft agencies.