Chaos In House Of Reps Over Bill Seeking To Raise Ways And Means To 10%

Opposition members in the House of Representatives staged a walkout during the plenary on Wednesday over a bill seeking to raise the ways and means cash advances from five percent to ten percent.

Naija News reports that the existing law provides that the advance by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must not exceed five percent of the previous year’s revenue of the federal government.

However, the decision to raise the ways and means led to chaos in the house after an amendment by the minority leader, Kingsley Chinda, that the ways and means be reduced to two percent was rejected.

Chinda moved the amendment during the consideration of the report on the bill by the committee as a whole, saying this will enhance transparency in federal government spending.

The report proposed raising the ways and means advances from the existing five percent to 15 percent.

However, the chairman of the committee on finance,  James Faleka, opposed Chinda’s amendment, urging the house not to go below the five percent in the act.

A lawmaker from Ogun state, Ibrahim Isiaka, supported Faleke’s position, proposing that it should be raised from five percent to 10 percent.

Idris Wase, a former deputy speaker, moved a motion for an amendment that 10 percent should be maintained.

When the deputy speaker and presiding officer, Benjamin Kalu, called for a voice vote on Wase’s amendment motion, the “nays” were louder than the “ayes,” but he ruled in favour of the “ayes.”

This provoked the lawmakers, who loudly expressed their dissent with a repeated “no”, and the opposition lawmakers, led by Chinda, walked out of plenary.

Subsequently, the report was adopted and passed for third reading.

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