The House of Representatives yesterday put a halt to the bid by Rep Ikenga Ugochinyere Imo to succeed Kingsley Chinda as minority leader of the House.
This followed the adoption of a motion explaining what “cognate legislative experience” in Order Seven, Rule 15 of the Standing Orders of the House meant.
With the development, ranking opposition lawmakers such as Fred Agbedi and others now have coast clear for them to gun for the minority leadership of the House.
The motion as adopted, defined ‘Cognate Legislative Experience’ as contained in Order Seven, Rule 15 of the
Standing Orders of the House to mean, ‘Members who have completed at least one full four-year term.
The development has effectively truncated the minority leadership quest of Ugochinyere who is currently in his third year as a member of the House of Representatives.
Ugochinyere, who was first elected to the House in 2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party before later defecting to the Action Peoples Party, is serving his first term in the National Assembly.
Daily Trust reports that the minority leadership quest of Ugochinyere has been raising controversy in the Green Chamber in recent times.
Ugochinyere had reportedly secured the endorsement of 61 out of the 81 opposition member for the position of minority leader following the resignation of Hon. Kingsley Chinda.
But controversy trailed the endorsement following allegation by Hon. Philip Agbese that his signature was forged and used for unauthorised purpose.
At resumption of plenary yesterday, Hon. Babajimi Benson moved a motion titled: “Need for a Precise Definition of Order Seven, Rule 15 of the House of Representatives.”
In his motion, Benson noted that Order Seven, Rule 15 of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives states that “only members with cognate legislative experience as Members of the House of Representatives” shall be eligible for appointment as Principal Officers of the House.
He argued that global parliamentary best practices rule out first term-parliamentarians from holding Principal Offices and reserve Principal Offices for experienced legislators to promote institutional memory, deepen understanding of legislative processes, and enhance competence in constitutional interpretation and intergovernmental relations.
He said the 10th Senate has recently specifically defined ‘cognate legislative experience’ to mean ‘senators who have completed at least one full four-year term’ adding that those with multiple previous terms must have served in the immediate past Assembly.
Benson further said that cognizant of the need to prioritise institutional memory, deepen parliamentary stability and continuity, legislative experience, minimise avoidable turbulence and promote matured representation in the comity of international parliamentary associations, there was a need to clearly explained what the cognate experience meant.
The House subsequently resolved to define ‘Cognate Legislative Experience’ as contained in Order Seven, Rule 15 of the
Standing Orders of the House as meaning –‘Members who have completed at least one full four-year term;
It also resolved to “state unequivocally that there is no other definition to the term ‘cognate legislative experience’ other than” as stated above.
Raising a point of order after the resolution was adopted, the member representing Abua/Odual and Ahoada East Federal Constituency of Rivers State, Solomon Bob, argued that there was no need for the motion in the first place, saying, the Speaker has the powers to interpret the House Rules.
“Mr Speaker, this motion is not necessary. We are, in fact, restricting your powers to interpret our rules,” Bob said.
Responding, Abbas acknowledged the concern but defended the House’s decision to take ownership of the interpretation.
“I understand, but I cede that power to the House,” the Speaker replied.