Commotion in House of Reps over CBN's donation to Kano.

THE seeming peace in the House of Representatives was on Wednesday threatened, as members almost engaged one another in a free-for-all over a motion that sought to probe the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on alleged misuse of public funds.

Consequently, the CBN governor has been summoned to appear before the House Committee on Banking and Currency, to explain where the bank derived its powers and authority to make monetary donations for infrastructural projects, emergency reliefs and philanthropic gestures.

Hardly had the Speaker, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal,  who presided over the plenary ruled in favour of a motion entitled, "Misuse of public funds by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the need to urgently establish a pool of fund for provision of relief to victims of natural disaster and some specified crimes," when a member from Kano State, Honourable Aminu Suleiman, stood up angrily shouting point of order.

Relying on Order 47, Honourable Suleiman told the speaker that he was protesting against his ruling with the claim that Honourable Tambuwal failed to allow those opposed to the motion to voice their take on it.

At this point, another lawmaker from Kano State, Honourable Babale Bashir, stood up, shouting around the chamber, with other members from Kano also shouting and moving from one seat to another, intimidating members who were in support of the motion.

The speaker, however, stood his ground, saying; "we are all seated here as men of honour. You raised up your hand to speak for the motion," but Honourable  Suleiman said, "No, I raised my hand up in frustration."

To this end, Honourable Tambuwal said, "on my honour, I saw you raising up your hand seven times. My conclusion is that you wanted to speak for the motion. So I ruled you out of order, because the chair has ruled and the ruling is irreversible."

At this point, members from Kano State staged a walk-out from the chamber despite pleas from another member from Kano, Honourable Farouk Lawan and the Deputy Speaker, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha.

Before the commotion, Honourable Uzo Azubike, who moved the motion, had informed the House that, "the CBN has, in recent times, misused public funds by embarking on functions clearly outside its mandate, with particular reference to the N100 million donations for the building of a bridge at the University of Benin, as well as N125 million donations to victims of bomb attacks in Kano and Madalla.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has issued the White Paper on the report of the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North-East of Nigeria, set up by President Goodluck Jonathan to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the Boko Haram crisis, keeping open the option for dialogue with the Islamic sect.

It formed part of the deliberations of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Jonathan at the State House, on Wednesday, with the council resolving to pass it to the Federal Ministry of Justice for gazetting.

The report of the committee, set up in August, 2011 and led by Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari, was submitted to the president in September 2011.

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who was joined by his Interior counterpart, Abba Moro, however, told State House correspondents at a briefing after the meeting that the content of the White Paper would not be disclosed until it had been put into gazette by the Justice ministry.

Maku said the White Paper covered most of the areas the committee had touched in the report and most of its recommendations had now been accepted by the government.

The committee had recommended the renunciation of all forms of violence by the Islamic sect, to enable the Federal Government to commence negotiation with it.

The committee also urged the government to consider the scope of the present assignment to cover all security challenges facing the nation, saying that this view was informed by comments, suggestions and counsel made by many concerned individuals to the committee in the course of interactions with stakeholders, including the governors of Borno, Bauchi, Kano, Niger and Sokoto states.