Gbajabiamila Cautions House Clerk As Faulty Microphones Delay First Plenary

It was an awkward moment for Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House of Representatives, when the microphones attached to his seat refused to work for more than a quarter of an hour on Thursday at the first plenary.

Gbajabiamila was to swear in Musa Sarki-Adar (APC-Sokoto), a member who was absent at Tuesday’s inauguration, and the oath of office was to be administered by the Clerk of the House, Patrick Giwa, but the swearing-in was delayed while attempts were being made by the technical staff to fix the faulty microphones.

The speaker later ordered the clerk to delegate some members of staff to check the entire sound system daily before commencement of every plenary.

After the microphones were restored, he sounded a note of warning to the clerk.

He said: “Please, moving forward, the clerk must delegate some of his responsibilities to ensure that everything from the microphone, light, and air-conditioning system are in precision order before members come into the chamber so that we don’t experience this kind of thing again.”

While the speaker’s microphone was fixed, only two columns had few functional microphones and members had to traverse the floor looking for functional ones to use.

The remaining two columns were left with no single working microphone.

Daily Independent gathered that the maintenance of equipment in the chamber is not in the hands of the clerk of the House but the clerk of the National Assembly (CNA), Mohammed Ataba Sani Omolori.

The speaker performed his first official assignment, which was the swearing-in of Sarki Arda.

He also mandated the clerk to notify the President, the Senate and the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria that the House had elected Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila and Rep. Idris Wase as presiding officers and could now receive communications.