By EricJames Ochigbo
The Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman has tasked members of Plateau State House of Assembly on legislative interventions to restore peace in the state.
Sulaiman gave the charge at the opening of a five-day training organised by NILDS for members of Plateau State House of Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the theme of the workshop is: “ Legislative Practice, Processors and Procedures.’’
Sulaiman said that the legislature is not just one of the three arms of government, but the very fulcrum of representative democracy.
According to him, it is the people’s house, mandated to make laws, provide oversight and represent the collective interests of citizens.
“Plateau is undergoing series of security challenges, we need peace, stability and harmony; the statement that described Plateau as the state of peace and harmony must be revived.
“It is there, the responsibility of the Plateau State House of Assembly to work with the Executive, security agencies and indeed the Federal Government to restore normalcy to the state,” he said.
The DG said that the complexities of modern governance demand that legislators and staff members alike to be adequately equipped with the right tools, skills and knowledge.
According to him, the legislature may struggle to fully assert its role in driving accountability, transparency and good governance without required skills.
Sulaiman said that democracy thrives only when legislatures are robust, knowledgeable and responsive to the needs of the people.
He said that the workshop represented a strategic investment in enhancing the institutional capacity of the assembly to perform its constitutional mandate effectively.
“The ever-changing socio-political and economic realities of our nation require adaptive legislatures capable of responding to new challenges.
“This workshop has, therefore, been carefully designed to address practical issues in lawmaking, legislative procedures, committee work, budget scrutiny and oversight functions.
“It will also provide a platform for cross-learning, experience-sharing and reflection on how to strengthen legislative/executive relations, while maintaining institutional independence,” he said.
The former Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Mr Luke Onofiok, emphasised the need to improvement on the oversight function of the legislature.
Onofiok who is one of the resource persons for the workshop, said that there was need to employ professionals as support staff members to aid the lawmakers in technical areas.
“I think we need to improve on what we already have, by way of serious oversight; we have had challenges in the part of oversight in the legislature, because of lack of funding, most times for the legislators and then because of lack of expertise.
“For instance, you cannot go and oversight a technical area like NNPC, if you do not have people with the knowledge of oil and gas as support staff members for the committee on upstream or downstream.
“You cannot go for oversight as a committee on works if you do not have engineers. So we need to begin to look at the recruitment of professionals as support staff members at the committee levels,” he said.
In his remarks, the Deputy Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr Madaki Ajiji said that they came to learn and improve on their skills.
He said that such workshops were very necessary for lawmakers as they journey towards perfection in the service of their constituents.
Ajiji said that as a house, they are ready to learn to enable them make their marks in the history of the state. (NAN)
Edited by Francis Onyeukwu
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