Dogara
In
order to attain stable, strong and effective governance in Nigeria,
the National Assembly must receive priority attention in terms of
capacity building, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon
Yakubu Dogara, has disclosed.
He
made this known while delivering an address on the topic,
“Parliamentary Institution Building in Africa”, at the
convocation ceremony of the National Institute for Legislative and
Democratic Studies (NILDS)/University of Benin Post Graduate
Programmes for the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 Academic sessions, which
held at the National Assembly.
The
speaker explained that because the Legislature is the true face of
democracy, especially in maturing democracies such as that of
Nigeria, where it serves as the stabilising force with robust
constitutional powers to check-mate the Executive misuse and abuse of
power which occasionally rears its head.
Making
a case for strengthening in institutions to produce good governance,
Hon Dogara added that the imperative of building healthy and strong
institutions, like the legislature, in place of strong personalities,
has been the bane of our democratic experience in Nigeria.
Going
further, he stated, “Time has come to reverse this trend in order
to achieve the goals of a robust and sustainable economic, social and
political development, not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole.
“It
is our considered opinion that if there is any institution of
government that should receive priority attention in terms of
capacity building, it is the Legislature. This is because the
Legislature is the true face of democracy. In our maturing democracy
in this country, the Legislature is the stabilising force as it has
robust constitutional powers to check-mate the Executive misuse and
abuse of power which occasionally rears its head. Credit must be
given to the Nigerian Parliament, which has continued to make Laws,
perform its representative functions and make robust use of the power
of oversight in order to preserve our hard-won democracy and achieve
good governance.”
Elucidating
further on the topic, he said a key factor in moving from a nominal
democracy to democracy that delivers development results for people
is an effective legislature that holds the executive to account,
especially in developing countries burdened by weak governance
structures like Nigeria and lamented that whereas much work has been
done on strengthening Executive leadership, not much attention has
been paid to systematically building the capacity of the legislature
to effectively contribute to national development.
Speaking
of efforts made in the last two decades by the legislature to provide
better governance in Nigeria, he said the National Assembly, among
other things, has set unprecedented record in the area of lawmaking,
which has translated to stimulating economic growth and prompting
competition.
“What
is expected of modern legislatures goes beyond the traditional role
of representation, law-making and oversight. The legislature in
Nigeria must serve a greater purpose within wider national
democratisation processes. Over the last two decades, the National
Assembly has transitioned from being the weaker institution to
becoming a strong and capable agent of change. Our activism in
the area of law-making is attested to by the unprecedented record we
have set in the area of law-making. Some of these laws are
specifically designed to stimulate economic growth and promote
competition. We have also successfully intervened in crises
situations to save the country from avoidable collapse.”
While
commending the bond between National Institute For Legislative and
Democratic Studies (NILDS) and University of Benin (UNIBEN) for
collaborating on the academic programmes, he congratulated all the
graduands on the successful completion of their programmes and urged
them to be great ambassadors of the institution of the Legislature.
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