Proceedings of the House of Representatives were disrupted on Thursday due to frequent power outage. The development forced presiding Deputy Speaker, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, to adjourn the plenary of the House till Tuesday next week.
The outage affected the air conditioning system of the chambers, leaving lawmakers sweating profusely each time it occurred.
Members who had motions, bills and other issues to present also found it difficult to work as the discomfort in the hot chamber became unbearable.
Our correspondent observed that the problem started before Thursday’s session began around 12pm.
Power was restored briefly as soon as Ihedioha and other principal officers settled down to work, but went off again almost immediately.
He tried to continue with the business of the day amid the power interruptions.
At a point, the deputy speaker calmed members by explaining that the electrical system had some faults, which were being traced.
Lawmakers reacted to his explanation by shouting, “the beauty of transformation.”
Several others, apparently from the camp of the All Progressives Congress, mouthed “change will take care of all this.”
The public gallery was full at the time of opening the House on Thursday, but with the heat growing stronger in the enclosed chamber, the visitors left one after the other.
Children who came from the American International School, Abuja, to observe the proceedings of the day also hurriedly left the place due to the unbearable heat.
Ironically, some of the visiting children were children of some lawmakers seated inside the hot chamber.
Some of them stood up to identify themselves as parents when their children were announced to be among the visitors of the day.
The National Assembly has of late been grappling with keeping infrastructure such as water, power and elevators running efficiently.
Findings indicated that alleged “funding challenges” and huge expenditure to run heavy generators in the absence of dependable public power supply, had drained resources in the last six months.
Credit: punchng
