October 14, (THEWILL) – After an initial resistance, President Bola Tinubu yielded to pressure and conferred the nation’s second highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), on the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas.
This is coming after lawmakers in the lower chamber on Wednesday, October 3, demanded an upgrade of the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) honour earlier awarded the Speaker by President Tinubu on Tuesday.
THEWILL recalls that President Tinubu, on Tuesday, October 1, had conferred national honours on Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Chief Justice of the Federation (CJN); Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Deputy Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy.
According to the awards announced by the President in a nationwide broadcast to commemorate Nigeria’s 64th independence anniversary, Tinubu said, “The Senate President and the Chief Justice of the Federation have been conferred with the honour of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). The deputy Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives have the honour of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), while the Deputy Speaker of the House has been awarded Commander of the Order of Niger (CON)”. Commander of the Order of Niger (CON).”
Reacting to the National Honours award for the Speaker in a motion of urgent public importance moved by Philip Agbese on October2, 2024, the House resolved that the members of the Green Chamber are not inferior to Senators and declared that Senate President Akpabio and Reps Speaker Abbas should be treated equally.
The motion, signed by 360 members of the House, called for the abolition of the “upper chamber and lower chamber nomenclature”, stating that both chambers are equal. They, therefore, called for an upgrade.
In a statement issued on Friday, by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, said President Tinubu was persuaded by the House of Representatives position and he has decided to remedy the historical error and oversight.
“Thus, he has decided to upgrade the Speaker to GCON from CFR, in accordance with the National Order of Precedence”, he said.
The Speaker, the Senate President, other principal officers of the National Assembly and the Chief Justice of Nigeria will be formally decorated with their new honours later, the statement added.
Investigation by THEWILL, show that the historical precedence referred to by Onanuga in deference to the Representatives’ demand, is however incorrect.
Starting with the country’s first Speaker of the House, the late Alhaji Ghalli Na’abba, 1999 -2003, till date all Speakers had been conferred with the national honour of Commander of the Order of Federal Republic, CFR.
While Na’abba was, in fact conferred with the award in 2010, long after he left office, his immediate successor and later governor of Katsina State between 2015 and 2023, Bello Masari received the same award, CFR, in 2005 while serving as Speaker during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo.
Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, President conferred Na’abba with the CFR award alongside former Speaker Patricia Etteh, who was forced to resign in the wake of corruption accusations against her in 2007, having served from June to October of that year. Her successor, Dimeji Bankole, 2007 -2011, was also conferred with CFR by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007. Indeed, the House of Representatives tried without success to protest the CFR award given the Speaker, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, saying it was too small for his status
After then, it became an established protocol to confer the Speaker with the CFR honour as successive Speakers from Aminu Tambuwal, 2011-2015, got the award in 2011, under Jonathan. His successor, Yakubu Dogara, 2015 -2019, got the award in 2022 during ex -President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. That same year, Dogara’s successor, Femi Gbajiagbamila, 2019-2023, got the CFR.
Correspondingly, Senate Presidents have always been conferred with the Grand Commander of the Niger, GCON, until this campaign for parity by the current House of Representatives.
Beginning with Pius Anyim Pius, the 9th president of the Nigerian Senate, 2000 to 2003, who was conferred with the GCON in 2001 to Kenneth Nnamani, 2005- 2007; David Mark, 2007-2011 and Ahmed Lawan, 2019-2023, the Presidents of the Senate have enjoyed the GCON award, while the Speaker got the CFR.
Explaining further to THEWILL, Hon Agbese relied on what he called Constitutional and customary realities to clarify the stand of the House.
He said, “The sections of the Constitution that talked about the establishment of the National Assembly as an arm of government did not say that any of the houses is superior to the other. It is just by people’s understanding and by composition of both houses in terms of age that you find more elderly people in the Senate and younger people in the House of Representatives. It is an issue of mind-set and not a matter of the Constitution. You will recall that at a time in Nigeria, Service Chiefs did not go to the National Assembly for confirmation because people did not realise that aspect of the law until Festus Keyamo, SAN, raised the matter on point of law and it came into practice.
“So, what the Constitution says about the National Assembly is two chambers, not an upper and a lower chamber. It is this same mind-set that informs the decision of former governors who always want to go to the Senate and not the House of Representatives. In terms of powers, the Senate has certain powers in terms of confirmation of appointments but on the issue of appropriation, it is the House of Representatives that the Constitution confers certain functions on. Our democracy, mind you, is mirrored after the American system. There, the Speaker of Congress is even more powerful than the Senate President. Yet, over there, they have a lower and an upper house. So, when we explained before President Bola Tinubu, he understood what we were saying.”
Reminded that precedence and protocol dictates that the President of the Senate was number three and in the administration of the National Assembly, the Senate President is the overall boss with the Speaker as his deputy, Agbese insisted it should not be so.
“What it should be is that both of them should be co-leaders because the two chambers are equal. These are recent issues in the Constitution we have been overlooking. I just gave you an example with the confirmation of the service chiefs. That it was observed in the breach does not mean it was lawful. Another example is about the confirmation of Ministers, which the Constitution says it must be the Senate. But for Service Chiefs, it says the National Assembly.
“This means it has to go through the Joint Committee of both Houses. Also, the Constitution says in the confirmation of appointees of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, it must be by the National Assembly. So, what happens in these cases is that you either go to the Senate or Reps. Recall also the confusion that attended the appearance of a President wanting to present the budget at the National Assembly. That is why if anything goes through the Senate, it must go through the House for concurrence. It is 50-50.”
Amos Esele is the Acting Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
