How Lawan, Gbajabiamila Can Surpass Saraki, Dogara’s Success at NASS

How Lawan, Gbajabiamila Can Surpass Saraki, Dogara's Success at NASS

0
758

A former chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday urged the 9th National Assembly not to ignore the mistakes and other controversies of the 8th Assembly in other to surpass their predecessors’ landmark achievements. He urged the lawmakers to streamline committees, saying their multiplicity is a disservice. 

Jega gave the advice at the public presentation of the 114-page “Scorecard of the 8th National Assembly: Report of a performance assessment of the 8th National Assembly in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic” organised by the YIAGA-Africa Centre for Legislative Engagement (YIAGA-CLE). 

According to Jega, who presented some of the findings of the report, research showed that the 8th assembly did more than any previous assembly in terms of introducing about 2,166 bills out of which 515 were passed and 21 were alteration bills. 

He however said while the work was commendable, it is not enough to produce bills, but that there was need to also pay attention to the quality of bills as many of them were not accented to by the president. He said the research showed that there was  room for improvement with regard to the quality of the bills produced. 

”There is need to pay attention to the quality of bills that are introduced so we strongly recommended an establishment of a mechanism for pre-legislative scrutiny, so that bills can be scrutinised. “Then a situation where a bill can go to the president and returned for inconsistencies or editorial work and so on will not even arise,” Jega said. 

Prof. Attahiru Jega, Ex-INEC chairman