Worried by perceived battered image of the National Assembly in the eyes of ordinary Nigerians, the leadership of federal legislature yesterday put on ground the mechanism to launder its image.
The Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan (APC, Yobe North) at a media briefing in Abuja said the image laundering was strategically planned for perception change ahead of the 3rd anniversary of the 8th Assembly on the 9th of June 2018.
Packaged by the leadership of NASS in collaboration with the management of the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), the effort would be carried out through a programme tagged: “Open week” by the committee already set up for that purpose.
“The planned open week is a welcome development, which would serve as platform for the general public to interact with federal legislators at close range towards understanding the constitutional functions of the National Assembly, particularly as regards constituency projects.
“The open week would bring to the fore, required knowledge about the workings of the National Assembly which are fundamentally, lawmaking, representation and oversight functions on the workings of all federal government agencies.
“As lawmakers, we no doubt feel bad about the negative perception of the National Assembly and we must change it in the interest of democracy which to us cannot be developmentdriven going by the way the institution is misunderstood by Nigerians,” he said.
Similarly, in his own remarks on the planned open week, the chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Hon Shehu Shagari said it was a welcome development since NASS has been the most misunderstood arm of government since 1999.
Amount voted for the planned event was however not disclosed before the committee members which included the DG NILS, Professor Ladi Hamalai.