The Leadership of Delta State House of Assembly has
explained that the continuous training of legislators and staff of the
legislature is necessary if sustainable development must be achieved for the
people that gave them mandate to represent them. The House which spoke to
newsmen through the Chairman, House Committee on Information and also the
Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Hon Johnson Erijo, on the activities of
the legislature while on annual recess, said the House is taking pragmatic
measures to work in line with the present ongoing restructuring of the
legislature to position it for excellent service delivery.
To this end, it is gratifying to look at some of the various reforms of the
Fifth Assembly under the watch of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei, in terms
of capacity building of legislators, aides and staff to position it for optimal
performance. Firstly, the House ceased the opportunity of the annual leave
signaling the end of the First Session of the Fifth Assembly to proceed on a
world-class training which involved some management staff who joined the 29
lawmakers to a Leadership Programme (University of Oxford, London) in
2012. This policy drive in the administration of the House was sustained
this year when the House successfully ended her Second Session to embark on
leadership training for the 29-member-house and some management staff of the
legislature at the University of Calofornia, USA.The training programme held at Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, San Franscisco, was attended by the Clerk of the House, Chief of Staff to the Speaker, some Directors and some other aides to the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Majority Leader. The two weeks training programme focused on the power of legislation in sustainable development of any society and looked at leadership and public management, social media and public policy, public and private partnership, leadership and innovation and sustainable development through diversification of economic drives. The California political system, leadership and education as well as the place of agriculture in human development were also addressed in the just concluded leadership training programme.
The training, no doubt, has given a boost to the human capital development of the Fifth Assembly which sees capacity building of members, political aides and staff as a priority for the leadership of the House. No wonder the Speaker, Hon. Victor Ochei, said at the training programme: “The choice of the School was a well thought out for members of the House owing to the institution’s track record in capacity building”. It therefore became evident and a clear testimony for participants, as the award of certificates to them will spur them and further prepare them for these challenges ahead of them in their work places.
It was based on the aforementioned premise, commendations and criticisms by Deltans on the policy thrust of the legislature, her image maker, Hon. Erijo had had cause to address newsmen on various reforms of the House embarked upon within this brief period of recess and the inherent benefits it has brought to the life of the Assembly, saying it was necessary that every parliament carried out some training so as to be abreast with the modern trend of legislature.
His words: “As parliamentarians, we are learning, the Nigerian democracy is still very young and for you to be able to impact on the people to bring about meaningful development you must be able to know. For instance if you come from a locality where you have not seen electricity all your life and you are used to lantern or the bush lamp, it is very difficult for you to say you want to make any legislation about electricity”. “If we are saying we want our society to be like that of the developed world, then, it therefore means for us to understudy to know the processes they underwent in arriving at that level. You cannot undermine the importance of training in terms of performance in the House, in terms of lawmaking process.”
He recalled that the lawmaking process is a process that was copied from the developed world and a whole lot of the members are new members who needed to be properly educated and trained on parliamentary proceedings, saying the experienced gained from the training which also took them to California Chambers and other industrial tours cannot be quantified.
The lawmaker debunked the recent publication making the rounds that the leadership of the House spent about N1.2 billion on its California training as not only outrageous but ridiculous, saying there was no any iota of truth in the publication as he urged the general public to take the advantages of the Fiscal Responsibility and the Freedom of Information laws to verify the authenticity of the claim. On the rumour mills also making the rounds that legislators’ training oversea was a parts of the political ambition and agenda of the Speaker, Hon Victor Ochei, the Information Committee Chairman distanced the oversea training programme of the House from the political ambition of the Hon Speaker, adding that his ambition was not to the knowledge of the House since he has not addressed them on that issue.
Hon. Erijo also took the opportunity provided by the press briefing to conduct journalists round the rehabilitated Main Chambers of the House that is ready for use. He noted that the rehabilitated structure actually delayed the resumption date of the House to begin the Third Session of the Fifth Assembly, expressing hope that the House is set to resume plenary after the National PDP Convention at Abuja this weekend, as the House which recorded majority of PDP members will be in attendance at the convention. He assured Deltans of improved legislation as the all-inclusive administration of the Fifth Assembly led by the Speaker; Hon Ochei is preoccupied in the transformational agenda of the legislature. “I think to me, he is doing well and trying his best to transform the legislature and I think all of you will agree that he is making his mark in the environment we are today”? Hon Erijo said rhetorically.
Source: Pointer
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