The House of Representatives Committee on Rural Development has vowed to invoke the provision of the 1999 Constitution as amended to compel the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Temitope Fashedemi to appear before it to answer questions on the activities of the rural development section of the Ministry.
Speaking during the interactive session between the Committee and the Ministry in Abuja, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon Marcus Onubun expressed displeasure that the Permanent Secretary had consistently ignored the invitations from the committee and had, on five occasions failed to appear before it as directed.
Members of the Committee who spoke one after the other frowned at the attitude of the Permanent Secretary and the Ministry, accusing them of undermining the House and the provisions of the Constitution which empowered the House to oversight all Ministries Departments and Agencies, MDAs of the Federal Government.
Hon Onubun pointed out that the Committee had decided to give the Permanent Secretary another opportunity to appear before it as a mark of respect for the two ministers in the Ministry who were products of the National Assembly.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari from Borno and Minister of State, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi from Niger State were members of the 9th National Assembly.
According to him, “This is about the fifth meeting we have had in this committee on Rural Development and the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has refused to appear.
“I would like to correct one notion because the Director said he is not here to answer queries. This Committee is constitutionally bound to query every one of your activities in terms of projects and policies of your ministry. If you don’t know, you must understand now that it is our responsibility.
“Members sitting here represent over 200 million Nigerians. We put all our activities aside to have the spot assessment of the ministry and we came to you because we wanted to work with you so that Nigerians will get the dividends of democracy through rural development. The Permanent Secretary was not at that meeting.
“But it appears that for some reasons best known to you, you have chosen to frustrate the efforts of this committee. We have the mandate of the House through the Speaker to carry out the exercise we are carrying out.
“I will yield to the request of my colleagues that since we have two Ministers who are products of this National Assembly, we may not use the big stick at this point. We will course another invitation, urging the Ministers to release the Permanent Secretary to appear on our next scheduled date.
“If the Permanent Secretary likes, he should chose to ignore that invitation. Then we will know who is dancing behind who at the end of the day. The Permanent Secretary should appear before this committee on Tuesday, May 21.”
Earlier, a member of the committee, Hon. Chinedu Ogah (APC, Ebonyi) had recalled how members abandoned their work to visit the ministry, saying “On that day, the Permanent Secretary was not there. It was you and the Director of Finance. The Director of Finance was not part of it, but he saw a call from the National Assembly, and he decided to be part of it (the meeting).
“You know we are elected by the people and we speak for the people. Within your conscience, is what your agency doing part of the law, or out of the law, when you know we are empowered by the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria to oversight this agency, or you are neglecting the House?”
Members became furious when a Director in the Ministry, Engr, Frank Satumari Kudla who represented the Permanent Secretary claimed that he was not in attendance at the meeting to answer queries, but on the instruction of the Permanent Secretary, so that it did not appear seems like they were snubbing the committee,.
Engr. Kudla told the committee that the Permanent Secretary was attending an official function at a place he did not disclose to the committee.
According to him, “I am telling you on my own honour, this is what happened. Actually, if the Permanent Secretary could have been here, he is in the best position to answer questions on behalf of the Ministry”.
The Director said he was not in the best position to answer questions, saying “our coming is not to query the position. You are calling the Perm Sec because the last time I was here, we discussed this. The perm sec is not deliberately dodging to come to see you”.
