Committee memberships

During the Sixth Assembly (2007 - 2011), Dogara chaired two House committees, namely the House Committee on Customs and Excise, and the House Services Committee. During this period, he was also a member of the House committees on Judiciary, Capital Markets and Institutions, Foreign Affairs, Rural Development and Power, among others.

During the Seventh Assembly (2011-2015), he served as chairman of the committee on House Services and Welfare, and as a member of others including Judiciary, Land Transport, Labour, Employment and Productivity, Steel Development, and Legislative Budget and Research.^[9]

House activities and assignments

Dogara has also served on panels and adhoc committees in the following capacities;^[10]

• Chairman, Nigerian Customs Service Probe Panel
• Chairman, Adhoc Committee on Composition and Pigmentation of Cement in Nigeria
• Chairman, House Adhoc Committee on Disbursement of Public Funds by the Bank of Industry
• Member, House Contract Scam Probe Panel
• Member, Hijack of fishing vessels and Maritime Security Probe Panel
• Member, House Adhoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft
• Member, House Adhoc Committee on Constitutional Review

Bills sponsored

In 2010, Dogara sponsored the Corporate Manslaughter^[11] and the Data Protection Bill. These were followed by Federal Competition Commission Bill in 2011.

In 2013, he sponsored a bill for an act to amend section 143 of the Nigerian Constitution in order to make the process of removal of the president and the vice president (on charges of misconduct) less ambiguous.^[12] In the same year, he also sponsored bills on Public Interest Disclosure,^[13] and Hire Purchase.^[14]

In the Eighth Assembly, i.e. the current dispensation, Dogara has sponsored bills which include the North-East Development Commission Establishment Bill 2015,^[15] the Subsidiary Legislation Bill 2015,^[16] the Federal Competition Bill 2015, the Data Protection Bill 2015,^[17] the Public Interest Disclosure Bill 2015^[18] and the Hire Purchase Bill 2015.^[19] He is also sponsoring the Budget Process Bill in fulfilment of his promises to reform Nigeria's budgeting process. The Bill when passed into law, according to him, will outlaw non-implementation of budgets which is the bane of Nigeria's development since 1999.

Motions Sponsored

Dogara has sponsored many motions throughout the duration of his legislative career, some of which bordered on;

• An alleged concession agreement between the Ministry of Finance and a technology firm which was signed in secrecy during the government transition period^[20]
• The indiscriminate granting of waivers, exemptions and concessions by the Federal Government^[21]
• The need for the Central Bank of Nigeria to implement the cashless policy in phases based on the availability of the requisite infrastructure.^[22]
• Urgent need for both Houses of the National Assembly to activate their constitutional powers under section 58 (1) (5) of the 1999 Constitution in relation to bills over which the president has failed to exercise constitutional responsibilities and powers under section 58 (1) and (4) of the Constitution.^[23]

Speakership

Dogara was elected Speaker on June 9, 2015, after a keenly contested election. Upon winning the contest, he introduced a legislative agenda for the Eighth House which would serve as its guiding document for a period of four years.

Dogara also constituted a committee which he charged with the duty of reviewing obsolete laws, with a view to repealing or amending the necessary laws in line with global best practices.^[24][25] Dogara has, on many occasions, spoken about the need to update Nigeria's laws in order to attract investments and provide jobs for the nation's millions of unemployed people. As a result of the work of the stated committee, the House of Representatives set a record in December 2015 when 130 bills passed first reading in one sitting.^[26] Following that first batch of bills, another 100 were introduced in one day in June 2016.^[27] As at June, 2016, after a year in office, the House had passed 85 bills through third reading; the highest in the history of Nigeria's National Assembly.^[28] The Dogara-led House also introduced sectoral debates on the Nigerian economy, during which ministers placed in charge of different vital portfolios engaged members of the House of Representatives with a view to establishing the required legislative framework for economic stimulation and growth.^[29]

Dogara has also been lauded for his ability to manage the affairs of the House effectively and for quelling the leadership crisis which engulfed the House of Representatives following his emergence as Speaker.

Dogara is a strong advocate for the reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery of the North-East region of Nigeria, which has been ravaged by six years of insurgency. He made history as the first ever Speaker to step down from his seat to sponsor a motion when he raised a motion on the urgent need for rehabilitation, reconstruction, recovery and development of the North-East zone of Nigeria.^[30]

He has also called on the international community to assist with rebuilding the region, and suggested convening a donor conference to achieve this. Dogara has also visited Internally Displaced Persons (IDP's) in camps across Nigeria, in Edo, Abuja, Adamawa and other states, and donated relief materials.^[31][32][33]