Our House of summons

The probe being conducted by various committees in the House of Representatives have become popular more for the drama and theatrics that have characterised the public hearings than the substance of their investigations. At the centre of it all is the resort to summoning of people the committees consider relevant in their quest to unravel the truth on the issues at hand.

The committees on land sales in the Federal Capital Territory as well as power and steel have in recent weeks thrilled the nation on series of summons to people associated with the subjects of their investigations. The buzz centred mainly on the invitation to appear at their public hearings. The summons were issued with so much glee that common headlines were unwittingly forced on newspapers. It would take near ingenuity on the part of sub editors to cast headlines that would just about avoid using the same words as other papers.

At the hearings proper, questions were asked and statements seemed to be made with an eye on the media. Hyperboles, generalisations, insinuations and assumptions underlined the questions from the committee members to the people they summoned to testify. Any intelligent person, and many of the people they summoned are; would easily dismiss the questions as they were not often anchored on known facts or adequate knowledge of the contending issues.

The mode of questioning adopted by the committee members exposed the hollowness in their attempts. It showed that the committees never conducted any checks on the issues before sending the summons. When Nasir el Rufai appeared before the House committee on sale of land at the FCT, the members displayed an obvious inability to leverage on some of the allegations on the former minister on his role in the sale of lands. Rather, it was el Rufai that succeeded in making the members buckle under the weight of his own well articulated arguments. Earlier, the members had been embarrassed by the testimony of an official of the FCT ministry who pointedly told Abubakar Sodangi, chairman of the committee, that he owns up to 20 plots of land in the capital city while members of the committee themselves had been allocated an apartment each. Sodangi's protest that he has "only" three and the members' "clarification" that they were offered apartments in blocks of flat which they turned down only made them look sheepish.

Elsewhere, the conduct of investigations into affairs of agencies of the government at the centre is serious business. In the United States of America, their House of Representatives has an investigative arm that undertakes discreet inquiries on institutions and arms congressmen with requisite facts and data before they consider holding a public hearing. Known as the Government Accountability Office (GAO), it is an independent, non-partisan agency that works for Congress. Often called the "congressional watchdog," GAO investigates how the Federal Government spends taxpayers' money. The head of GAO who is called the Comptroller General of the United States, is appointed to a 15-year term by the President from a list of candidates proposed by Congress.

GAO's work is done at the request of congressional committees or subcommittees or is mandated by public laws or committee reports. It supports congressional oversight by auditing US federal agencies' operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently and effectively. By investigating allegations of illegal and improper activities and reporting on how well government programmes and policies are meeting their objectives, GAO performs policy analyses and outlines options for congressional consideration.

Whenever any committee of the US Congress is holding a public hearing, those who are summoned know it is serious business and come truly prepared. From such hearings, Americans usually get an insight into the true workings of the executive arm of their government.

Have Nigerians really gotten an insight into the true workings of the Federal Government from the numerous public hearings by the committees? Has any truth been unravelled by the committees' investigations?

If the intention of the committees from the outset was to find out the truth about the subjects they were inquiring into, perhaps their approach would have been different. As it were, there was so much theatrics and made-for-the-camera manoeuvres that the hearings have ended up as circus shows that thoroughly entertained Nigerians. But they lack substance. The major undoing of the exercises is the resort to probe by summons. No attempt was made by the committees to equip themselves with the basic truth before their encounters with the witnesses. On the other hand, they seemed to rely on the testimonies of those summoned to have a grasp of the truth. No official will provide the information to nail himself! And not before the klieg lights anyway.

While the show is on, a new level is being created by the law makers for themselves. They now want to set up their own television and radio stations. That way, they are guaranteed media coverage. At that point, some people will be inclined towards lobbying to be summoned to appear before public hearing just to be a part of the glamour. Honestly, its an exciting time for those guys.