By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja

There was uproar in the House of Representatives at Wednesday’s plenary, as members unanimously protested against President Bola Tinubu’s decision to confer a lower national honour, Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) on Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

Tinubu had, during his Independence Day national broadcast, announced the conferment of CFR on the Speaker while the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Kudirat Kerere-Ekun were conferred with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) title.

But the lawmakers said the Speaker ought to be at par with the Senate President on the GCON title, pointing out that Tinubu breached protocol by ranking the CJN above the Speaker.

They hinged their argument on the premise that the Speaker is Number 4 in national protocol ranking while the CJN is Number 5.

Going by extant tradition, the President is Number 1, Vice President is Number 2, Senate President is Number 3, Speaker is Number 4 while the CJN is Number 5.

In a heated debate on a motion sponsored by Rep Philip Agbese, the legislators took turns to pooh-pooh what they described as discrimination against the Speaker and the House of Representatives as a whole.

According to them, the president’s action suggested that the position of the Speaker is inferior to that of the Senate President.

Leading the debate, Agbese argued that the National Honours Act of 1964 does not explicitly prescribe the conferment of GCON on the President of the Senate or the CFR on the Speaker, but that these distinctions are rooted in customary practice rather than statutory requirement.

The House noted that the title of GCON is not restricted to any particular office or individual but can be awarded to any distinguished Nigerian deemed deserving by the president.

Citing the conferment of GCON on Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala by former President Muhammadu Buhari, this the House acknowledged the flexibility in the conferment of the titles and the prerogative of the president in conferring such on deserving individuals.

Agbese insisted that the conferment of the CFR on the Speaker and Deputy President of the Senate was inappropriate subordination of the Speaker to the President of the Senate.

In his remarks, Minority Whip, George Ozodinobi said: “I wouldn’t be talking from the standpoint of opposition.

“But I am indeed saddened that each regime that comes, they keep on repeating what their predecessors did. I think something that is very constant, they say, is change.

“I wouldn’t want to say that the president is a listening president. There are indications to show that he is not. But I am thinking that what he has already pronounced needs to be changed before it is confirmed.

“Because we can’t continue to be repeating the mistakes of the past. So he has every opportunity to respect the 360 members of this House who have also fought so hard to bear the responsibility of certain policies of this government. We are the people that have already tried to calm the entire country down with our number.

“We need to be respected in that form. As other people argued, we are not talking for the person who is sitting as the Speaker. We are talking for the institution.”

Similarly, Rep Dominic Okafor cited the provision of Section 47 of the 1999 Constitution, which states that there shall be a National Assembly for the Federation, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Okafor said the constitution did not say that the Senate is superior to the House of Representatives.

On his part, Rep Ali Issa said, “I am from Gombe State, and I am the Minority Whip of the 10th Assembly. Mr. Speaker, just like my colleagues who spoke about Section 4 of the Nigerian constitution, the section clearly stated the creation of the National Assembly, and it clearly specified that the National Assembly comprised 109-member Senate and 360-member House of Representatives.

In his own intervention, Rep Cyril Godwin argued that the National Honours Act of 1964, Section 1, Subsection 3 stated that: “Subject to Article 2 of this warrant, the numbers of persons appointed to the different ranks of the orders in any calendar year shall not exceed eight. In the case of Grand Commander, which is what is in contest here, in the case of Grand Commander, two as respect to the Order of the Federal Republic and 10 as respect to the Order of Niger.

“What it simply means is that for GCON, for every calendar year, it shall not exceed two in line with the National Honours Act. So if the Senate President has been given one.

“It therefore means we are going to ask in our resolution as well, that the CJN shall relinquish his own for the Speaker, not necessarily Tajudeen, but for any Speaker of the House of Representatives, until we amend this Act. You cannot exceed two in line with this Act.”

Majority Leader, Rep Julius Ihonbvere who doubles as Head of Government Business in the House, said: “Ordinarily, I should be speaking to defend the government. But I also have a responsibility and duty to correct the government when it is doing something that is not right. Fortunately, we have a government that listens and a president that listens.

“I want to especially appreciate my colleagues. Without party restriction or consideration or any consideration whatsoever, I have unanimously agreed that there are several amendments we need to make both in the Constitution and in the Honours Act in order to correct historical injustices and administrative miscarriage of responsibilities. It is clear that we are not just talking about the current occupants of these positions.”

Hon. Adebayo Adekojo urged the House to reject the CFR award, saying: “I think it would not be out of place for us to outrightly go ahead and amend this motion to reject the honours of CFR at this point.”

However in his intervention, Speaker Abbas who opposed his position, said: “Honorable, I don’t think it would be respectful to our president if we go to that extreme. Ours is just to appeal and show the reason why things should change.

“It is not like we are trying to confront him or to say what he did is not appreciated. So I would want to kindly ask you to withdraw that prayer, please.”

In line with the Speaker’s request, Hon. Adekojo said: “Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, sir, I go ahead and withdraw the prayer in honour of you and Mr. President.”

While ruling, Speaker Abbas referred the motion to the Ad-hoc Committee to be chaired by the House Leader, while all the six zonal caucus leaders and the two regional leaders of North and South.

And any other person that the committee may deem fit to co-opt will be members of the ad-hoc committee.