Legislative Oversight: NILDS DG Gives Kwara Assembly Poor Rating
The Kwara state House of Assembly has gotten a poor rating from the Director General of the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Professor Abubakar Sulaiman with respect to legislative oversight.
He also alleged that the executive arm of government has failed to provide necessary supports for the legislature to function effectively.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Professor Sulaiman, who said this during a book launch event in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, on Saturday, also emphasized the need to provide an enabling environment for lawmakers to effectively carry out their legislative duties.
The book titled “My Random Thoughts: A Wake Up Call to the 10th KWHA’ was authored by Comrade Lanrey Osho.
The NILDS DG also explained reasons why he gave the Kwara state parliament a poor rating .
‘With regard to oversight, either in terms of funding, in terms of assessment, in terms of evaluation, our state assembly is zero. I stand to be corrected. The major duty of lawmakers is oversight and the topic we are treating here at this book launch event falls under the oversight functions of the Assembly’ he said.
Professor Abubakar has also emphasized the need for financial autonomy for the state house of assembly.
‘Do they have the resources to get things done on their own? Are they not begging for money from executives to do one thing and another? Without funding, they cannot do anything. The environment and institutions must be there for them to perform very well. My position is that the environment, in terms of Institution, in terms of funding, in terms of resources are not there in kwara state.
Therefore, this has hampered the effectiveness of Kwara state House of Assembly over the years.
Secondly, we look at the capacity of the people we are recruiting into the state Assembly. Kwara has the youngest lady in the assembly in the country. We have been parading that. In the history of gender balance, we are number one. I commend the Kwara state Assembly for that.
The issue is about our Assembly members, do they have the capacity? Are they truly the people we needed? If we are not doing things the way we should do it, in terms of amendment to Nigeria’s Institutions, Kwara state is one of the states that have failed in doing what to do and nobody is talking’ he said.
Sulaiman also called legislative oversight an important and effective anti-corruption tool .
‘How do we fight corruption? Through the instrumentality of the state assembly, through the instrumentality of the state legislature. When the contract is awarded, you are not oversighting. Oversighting to fighting corruption could come in many ways, through legislative framework.
We have to make a law, that will protect the people who want to whistle blow on issue of corruption, you have to make a law that will come out with Institutions and framework that fight corruption. Some states have anti -corruption agencies which perform similar functions like ICPC, EFCC . I don’t think we have one in Kwara state. It’s the duty of Kwara assembly to establish such agencies through legislation.
How do we replicate EFCC,ICPC in Kwara? Come up with bills and move it to executive. Let executives now refuse to ascents such a bill, but we don’t see that in Kwara state.
You can fight corruption by oversighting the work of executives for transparency, accountability I don’t know what to say because you can only talk on what exists. It didn’t exist in the previous assembly, and it doesn’t exist in the current assembly.
How many times have kwara assembly invited MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) to open their records and ask questions. How many times have you seen them invite commissioners to ask questions. How many times have they done public hearing to seek opinion of kwara people, all these are not existing’ he said.
The former National Planning minister commended non-governmental organizations and journalists for carrying out oversight duties, since the state assembly has according to him failed to do this.
‘Corruption is not limited to government. There are individuals’ corruptions, institutional corruption. Corruption goes on everywhere. The governor will not know that people are siphoning off our resources. People wouldn’t know that the Public Complaints Commission is under legislature.
How effective and efficient is our Public Complaints Commission in Kwara state? What are the resources meant for them? What have been the funding challenges? When I heard Lanre Osho three days on radio lamenting, I pity him. The major pressure groups in Kwara that are now performing oversighting in the state are NGOs and Journalists. Kwara State House Assembly is not there to carry out this function’ he added-
Professor Sulaiman urged the Kwara state House of Assembly to address the issues he has raised and carry their duties to ensure good governance in the state-Team@orientactualmags.com
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