10th House: We are responding to yearnings of Nigerians – Abbas
By Tom Okpe
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep Tajudeen Abbas has stated that the 10th House has placed as its utmost priority and commitment, responding to yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.
He said as Representatives of the people, institution building is the gateway to professionalism, efficiency and productivity.
Speaking at a roundtable meeting with development partners of the National Assembly at his office in Abuja yesterday, the speaker said:”we are committed to ensuring that the 10th House of Representatives can respond to the yearnings and expectations of citizenry as we have been called to serve at the most critical period in the nation’s political history.”
Speaker Abbas also, noted that it is only a committed legislature, properly equipped, that will be able to deliver service to meet expectations of the people.
At the meeting were representatives of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, (PLAC), Department for International Development, (DFID); Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, (FCDO); Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS); United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP).
Other partners, present are: Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn, (PERL), the Civil Society and Legislative Advocacy Centre, (CISLAC); International Community on Red Cross, (ICRC) and the Order Paper, among others.
The House was represented by Chairmen of relevant House Committees and Principal Staff members of the Speaker’s Office.
While noting that it was the first time his office would be having a direct interface with Development Partners, the Speaker said the interactive meeting was organised to provide an opportunity to share ideas and updates on contributions and support to the House on capacity development for members and staff.
“One of my cardinal policy thrusts, on assumption of office as Speaker of the House, is capacity development for members and staff of the House of Representatives.
“This has become more imperative following the high turnover rate of the 10th House of Representatives where we have over two hundred new Members with hundreds of Legislative Aides.
“This number of members and aides requires improved capacity to cope with the offices’ demands, hence, institutional capacity development is considered one of the priority components of the Legislative Agenda of the 10th House,” the speaker said.
He further noted that the contributions of the technical partners are partly responsible for the success story of the legislative business of the National Assembly in the past, urging them to do more for the 10th Assembly.
He also stated that the Legislative Agenda of the 10th House is the barometer to monitor and evaluate engagement of the House with Nigerians saying; “we expect that you will as usual play critical role in the successful implementation of the agenda.”
He said: “We have observed that over the years, some of you have had to engage different committees and departments of the House of Representatives to, sometimes, organise programmes without a coordinated approach or ‘Needs Assessment’ of the House.
“The assumption is that each development partner has its own area of focus for which budgetary provisions would have been made, and their representatives in Nigeria would engage relevant Committees of the House in that regard.
“While that support is greatly appreciated, there is need for coordination in the 10th House because of our peculiar challenge of capacity gaps.
“It is on this note that I have considered the proposal for the creation of a Programme Monitoring Unit, (PMU) in my office to be supervised by the Special Adviser on Policy and Strategy.
“The purpose of the unit is to ensure that all partnership programmes of the House are properly documented and utilised to bring about desired change.
“The unit is to provide guidance in line with the Legislative Agenda of the House for your technical support and partnerships.
“This is to ensure that all Committees and departments of the House receive necessary and equal attention.”
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Representatives of the development partners, in their remarks, also expressed their readiness to offer more technical assistance to the National Assembly in various thematic areas including, electoral laws, legislative processes and law-making, training and capacity building, among others.
The partners also suggested that a technical session be organised by the PMU where all stakeholders would deliberate and come up with a policy document on how they assist in the design and implementation of the 10th House Legislative Agenda, an idea that the Speaker welcomed and directed, should be implemented.
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