The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, on Thursday, called for the redeployment of the staff assigned to print the Order Paper and Votes and Proceedings for failing to provide the document at the time he assumed his seat.
The speaker, who was visibly angered over the non-availability of the documents, directed the Clerk and his deputies to a meeting in his office, just as the House adjourned plenary to Tuesday, February 8, 2022.
Worried by the speaker’s unusual vexation, about seven sergeants-at-arms working within the chamber were seen running helter-skelter to the Rules and Business office to get the Order Papers and the Votes and Proceedings.
While addressing the Clerk, Hon. Gbajabiamila said: “I’m going to hold you responsible.
“I’m going to hold whoever is responsible. This House sits at 11, everybody knows that. It’s 11:20; when I came in, nobody was on this floor.
“None of your deputies were here. Order Paper is not ready, what kind of thing is that?
“What kind of thing is that that we are now forced to adjourn the House.
“Everybody should see me in my office. House adjourned till Tuesday,” he ruled.
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After his ruling, the Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Peter Akpatason, moved for adjournment while Chairman, House Committee on House Services, Hon. Wale Raji seconded the motion.
Recall that the Speaker had on September 25, 2021 inspected the newly installed electronic gadgets that were installed in the green chamber to aid proceedings.
The electronic gadgets which were still being test-run as at the time of the visit were attached to each of the member’s seats.
Speaking after the inspection, the Speaker disclosed that: ”The system was put together by the company of a gentleman who I will introduce to the house as part of his corporate social responsibility, you will hear more about him later, a gentleman named Wale Ajisebutu of 21st century technology.
“We are happy, you will find this anywhere in the world, in the most advanced democracy. He will be able to brief you on what this does, it’s promised e-voting, it’s seamless, the chambers now are more or less paperless. We have the constitution uploaded, code of conduct, legislative agenda, the order paper, motions, etc for the benefit of all members to follow discussions.
”From up here, I can do a lot of magic, that I will not disclose to you now. It’s a very advanced system. We are very excited that we’ve been able to tick that off, it’s one of the promises we made and were determined to do. It has the capacity for members to research issues on the floor, there’s a search engine that’s dedicated for that purpose, you can quickly research whatever information or reference that you’re trying to do research about.
”This is also connected to registration processes, so we have e-registration or e-attendance. You can only use your thumb for your attendance to be captured, now nobody signs in for anybody just in case. Your thumb ID is only specific for you. Also when you have a foreign guest who does not understand our lingua franca, the system can translate automatically to whatever language he or she speaks so he or she can follow discussions on the floor. The rest of the details will be filled in, by the team who have worked tirelessly from day to night in the last two months that we’ve been on break trying to make sure this is up and running. We thank them for being very committed and dedicated and will thank them again on the floor.”
and then