Effective Legislature Key To Result Oriented Democracy – Speaker Dogara

Share

BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has said that 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.

This is just as he said that the imperative of building healthy and strong institutions such as the legislature in place of strong personalities, has been the bane of our democratic experience in Nigeria.

Dogara also said that in order to attain stable, strong and effective governance in Nigeria, the National Assembly must receive priority attention in terms of capacity building,

The Speaker, who stated these while delivering an address with 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, 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.

In the words of Dogara; “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. 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.”

He 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.

Dogara 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.

According to him; “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.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply