TOPE MUSOWO takes a critical look at the 8th Lagos House of Assembly’s one year after its inauguration, concluding that the electorate are still expectant of better performance.
It is common knowledge that Lagos State House of Assembly prides itself as the best in the country through positive and tireless disposition to plenary and committee activities, hence, its slogan; “beyond the common standard of excellence”.
No doubt, this claim puts a burden of high expectation on the assembly to live up to this standard, particularly the 8th Assembly to retain the status of Lagos among the committee of state houses of assembly in the country.
Therefore, when the 8th Assembly was inaugurated on June 8, 2015, Rt Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, the Speaker of the Assembly in his inaugural speech said, “…we are here to serve the people. Our new members will find that we are often besieged by lobbyists. Their advocacy plays a valuable role here. But we must never forget whom we really serve – the people of Lagos State.”
One year down the line, the House can be said to have lived up to this promise in honesty,
Being mindful of the enormous tasks, representing about 20 million Lagosians across the 377 wards of the state, put on the shoulders of the 40 members that make up the 8th Assembly,it becomes imperative for the House to live up to the expectations of the people to advance legislation and policies that would secure the lives and well-being of the people, enacting good laws that would aid security and socio-economic development of the State.
Far from being patronizing, the House has not really fared badly in all, in the last one year, it has passed into law seven bills, one of which is the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund Law, 2015, because of its avowed commitment to economic well-being of Lagosians, as this law is intended to provide job opportunities for Lagosians and reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.
The Local Government Administration (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was equally passed into law by LAHA to deepen democracy at the grassroots by increasing its tenure from three to four years.
Yet another outstanding record of the House is introduction of nine Private Member’s Bills, four of which were initiated by the Rt Hon Speaker himself, one of which has been signed into law by the governor while the others are at various stages of passage.
In the same vein, the House has passed about eighty resolutions on issues that directly affect the well-being of Lagosians. The impacts of those resolutions have brought new lease of life to the good people of Lagos State.
Within one year also, the House had recorded some achievements in prompt but thorough passage of the Year 2016 budget.
Timely commencement of plenary sittings which was not the case in the seventh Assembly.
For the first time in the history of Lagos Assembly, the 8th Assembly started organizing constituency stakeholders’ meetings simultaneousl in all the 40 constituencies of the state.
Lagos lawmakers in the 8th Assembly in all fairness has been holding the MDAs to account through intensive and effective oversight activities, while responding earnestly to the petitions by Lagosians through appropriate Standing or ad hoc committee.
In terms of capacity building,Lagos Assembly has not relented in organising training programmes for lawmakers and staff, a factor that has improved their legislative and administrative performances,however,many observers still believe that compared to the 7th Assembly,the 8th Assembly still needs to do more in this area.
In the area of infrastructural development within the Assembly complex, when the assembly was inaugurated a year ago, the legislative building construction was ongoing, today, there have been great improvement on these facilities, especially the completion of the L-Shaped legislative ultra modern complex with state-of-the-art facilities, which the immediate past administration in the house started.
Technological advancement for global competitiveness, the 8th Assembly do not really come behind as well,as the House now has a multidimensional and functional website with a mobile-friendly app, available for free download for Android and Apple phone users. For the first time in the history of the hallowed chamber since its 36 years of existence, Nigerians, and Lagosians in particular, can now communicate with the honourable members through the official email address of the House. All the Assembly’s social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are also functioning.
According to the Speaker, Lagosians will soon be watching live streaming of the plenary sessions from the chamber, being the first to do so in Nigeria, if not Africa,as efforts are ongoing to put this in place.
In fairness and at the risk of being immodest,the performance of this 8th Assembly has earned it awards from the media and civil society organizations. In recognition of its contributions to the development of democracy within a period of One Year in office, Rt Hon Mudashiru Obasa,the Speaker of the House,on behalf of the House,have received Award of “Best Speaker” by both the Global Excellence and City People Magazine. The Assembly also received the Most Outstanding State Assembly Award.
The stakeholders’ forum organized by the assembly on compulsory teaching of Yoruba in all schools in Lagos State is another milestone in the political development of Lagos State House of Assembly. The success of this programme has been acknowledged far and wide.
With the feat achieved by Governor Ambode in the last one year,no doubt that the responsiveness and readiness of the honourable House to pass pro-people and pro-development legislations have been the needed tonics which gave Mr. Governor the much required enabling environment to have performed creditably well to the admiration of Lagosians.
The Speaker had said in his inaugural speech also I remember, that, “we will not usurp or encroach on either the territory of Judiciary or those of the Executive. As Speaker, I will make sure we work hand-in-hand with the Governor of the state, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode and other government parastatals to make Lagos a great place to live and work.”
This actually form the basis of the Deputy Speaker’s assessment (Hon Wasiu Eshinlokun Sanni) of the 8th Assembly, when he said,”So far so good for me, the assembly has been able to work in an environment devoid of acrimony which is an achievement on its own”
Speaking further,Eshinlokun said,”we have most honourable members who are professionals who have brought their expertise to bear in the act of legislative activities,we have so many private member bills probably due to the experiences of many of the lawmakers who are second timers,third timers,even fourth timers
“One of the things that stands out Lagos House of Assembly among other state houses of assembly is that we have a good chamber,one of the best chamber in the country,because of the population of Lagos itself we have more to do than any other state assembly,we receive more public petition,we are on all the social media reporting our activities”
Talking about their projection into the future,Eshinlokun added that,”in the next one year we are thinking of bringing more innovation into legislative business,if we have the financial resources,may be we think of electronic voting,but in all I believe we have not done badly in the last one year”.
For Hon Abiodun Tobun representing Epe constituency in the House,the Assembly has done wonderfully we,the members have put in their best with so many private member bills,so many meaningful motions to enhance the social economic well-being of Lagos Residents .
Comparing the 8th Assembly with the last one he said,”I was part of the 7th Assembly and now still with the 8th Assembly,the 7th assembly did wonderfully well but so far we are about to surpass the record of the 7th assembly.
A member of the opposition party,Hon Victor Akande representing Ojo constituency on the platform of the PDP,gave a pass mark to the 8th Assembly,saying it has lived up to the expectations of Lagosians.
On while the eight of them from the opposition PDP have dashed the expectation of many people who expect them to provide vibrant opposition to the APC dominated house,given their number which is unprecedented in the history of Lagos Assembly,Akande said,”we are all colleagues here,we are not opposition,we are here to represent our people not party .
However,no matter the record of achievement of the 8th Lagos Assembly,people still believe they can do better,because to whom much is given ,much is required,there are hardly any state house of Assembly in the country have access to the kind of resources and the enabling environment like the Lagos Assembly do.
Nevertheless,the next three years is going to be challenging to the Lagos Assembly,the lawmakers who will need to impress and convince their constituents why they should be voted in for another term after the expiration of their tenure.