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Tag: Azeez Sanni

  • ‘Lagos is progressing because of intelligent leaders’

    Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa has said that the state is making much progress because intelligent people have been ruling the state since 1999, when the current democratic dispensation started.

    Obasa stated that the state was not excelling because of its strategic location alone, but that it is lucky to have been ruled by people with focus and good ideas.

    The Speaker was addressing the audience at the 16th Annual End of The Year Thanksgiving/Christmas Outreach of the Assembly Chapel with the theme; “Reigning In His Majesty,” which held at the Assembly premises yesterday.

    He urged residents of the state to vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 elections to sustain the “remarkable success the state has made over the years.”

    “This is a critical period in our country. Few months to now, we will be going to the polls. We must ensure that we have a nation and community where people live in harmony by doing what is good.

    “The only way you can reciprocate these achievements is by supporting our party, the APC. Lagos is not succeeding just because of its location, but because we have been having people who are intelligent at the helms of affairs in recent times.

    “When we got to office in 1999, the revenue of Lagos State was N 600 million per month, now it is about N30 billion per month. Let us sustain this by voting for the APC in the next election,” he said.

    Obasa stressed that the Assembly community had so many reasons to praise God because they are alive and their family members are alive.

    He added that the Assembly community had reasons to thank God that has made them to do what they were doing and for the fact that they had excelled in their duties.

    “We are here to say thank you God and we will continue to say that because we have so many reasons to praise Him. The only thing that has been emphasized here is that we have reasons to celebrate God and honour Him.

    Read Also: Re: Lagos and the garbage question

    “Coming together to clap and dance is not enough. We must extend our thank you to the less privileged in our community and in our family. Let us thank God by showing Him that we are very grateful for what He has done for us,” he said.

    Earlier in  his welcome address, the Patron of the chapel for the year, Hon. (Eng.) Setonji David, said that the programme was one of the outreach programmes of the Lagos State House of Assembly chapel to appreciate God.

    He revealed that the fellowship organises prayer programmes on a quarterly basis, and that they also reach out to the poor such as the widows and the physically challenged.

    “The programme started in 2003 and it is now 16 years old. I thank the past patrons and patronesses of the fellowship.

    “I thank the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez  Sanni and the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, who has done well as the head of the Assembly,” he said.

    The Bible Reading; Psalm 47: 1-8 was taken by Hon. Adefunmilayo Tejuoso.

    In his ministration, Apostle Oladele Johnson of Jesus Liberation Ministry, Lagos said that only those who know how to be grateful to God would enjoy the greatness of God.

    “Whatever you have, God gave it to you. God deserves accolades for what He has done for you in 365 days. You cannot reign in His Majesty if you are not grateful to His Majesty.

    “You cannot praise God and go down. When you are grateful, you become great. We must give God our heartfelt praise,” he said.

    Guest Artist at the event was Evangelist Olubunmi Akinnanu-Adeoye aka Omije Ojumi.

     

  • Lagos Assembly commends Buhari for honouring MKO Abiola

    To host Osinbajo, Naa’ba for 3rd anniversary

    Lawmakers at the Lagos State House of Assembly have commended President Muhammadu Buhari for honouring the  winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Elections, the late Chief MKO Abiola.

    Raising the issue as a matter of urgent public importance, Majority Leader, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade said it was gratifying that President Buhari recognised Abiola as a hero of democracy with an award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) reserved for presidents of the country.

    According to him, “President Buhari has crowned the agitations of the Lagos State House of Assembly over the years that the late Chief MKO Abiola should be recognized.

    “We are glad with what President Buhari did on June 4, 2018. The President did what the presidents that have ruled Nigeria since 1999 failed to do, so we are glad that our dreams have finally been realised,” he said.

    The Speaker, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa while supporting the issue on behalf of other members of the Assembly, stated that the House had always been canvassing the recognition of Chief MKO Abiola and other unsung heroes of democracy.

    Read Also: Lagos Assembly to review pension law

    He said that it was worthy of note to commend President Muhammadu Buhari for the action, adding that he never expected Buhari to make such move as a former military president, who later became civilian president.

    Obasa added that by recognising the winner of the June 12,1993 presidential election,  Buhari has advanced the nation’s national value and promoted her national unity.

    The Speaker then directed the Clerk of the House,  Mr. Azeez Sanni to write a letter to President Muhammad Buhari to commend him for the action.

    Moreover, the Chief Whip, Hon. Rotimi Abiru gave a report on the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which held in Abuja on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24, June,  2018.

    Abiru stated that most members of the Lagos State House of Assembly were at the convention and commended the leaders for its success.

    Obasa then directed the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni to write letters of congratulation to all the leaders of the party, while he commended it’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    The House then adjourned to Friday 29, June 2018 by 2:00pm, when it would be marking it’s third anniversary with the nation’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and former speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Ghali Umar Naa’ba as guests speakers.

  • Lagos Assembly begins three-day capacity-building workshop for staff

    The Speaker, Lagos State Assembly, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, says the staff in the legislative house need to be trained, to add value to what is being done there.

    “Without training the workers, we are harming the society,” Obasa, represented by Mr Olumuyiwa Jimoh, the Deputy Majority Leader of the House, said on Wednesday.

    He made the remark as the house of assembly began a three-day capacity building workshop for its staff, tagged: “Effective Capturing, Report Writing, Documentation and Presentation of Parliamentary Proceedings”, to enhance their performance in legislative business.

    Obasa said that such training would be regular, to sustain the Assembly’s motto of “above the common standards of excellence’’.

    “The only methodology that we can use to develop ourselves is to train the trainers and educate the educators.

    “These staff needs to be educated for them to even add value to whatever we are doing.

    “It is the bureaucratic system that determines direction and dimension of whatever the political and economic system are doing,” he said.

    The speaker said the development of bureaucratic system should be in geometric progression instead of arithmetic progression, hence the need to do more.

    According to him, the development and growth of any country lies in the capacity of the civil service.

    Also speaking, the Clerk of the House, Mr Azeez Sanni, said that the workshop was another decisive and epoch-making stride by the House to raise the performance of the staff.

    Sanni, who commended the leadership and management of the House, said that the workshop would improve parliamentary reporting and legislative practices.

    Read Also: Lagos remits N9.56b into workers pension accounts

    “This training is borne out of an urgent need by the leadership of the House to address certain areas of inadequate performance by some of the staffers, and which has been a source of growing concern.

    “This programme has been packaged to deepen the skills and proficiency of staff in the three core directorates of the House — the Legislative Matters, Legislative Drafting and Legal Services, and Publications — in the art of writing and indeed other areas peculiar to their duties and practices.

    “This is with a view to ensuring improved productivity,’’ he said.

    The clerk said that the staff had been commended and respected within and outside for their commanding display of knowledge, experience and understanding.

    He said that the workshop, among other issues, would review the current reporting and documentation process in the House with a view to improving the standards.

    NAN

  • Lagos Assembly passes regulation to boost state revenue through taxation

    Lagos Assembly passes regulation to boost state revenue through taxation

    Lagos State House of Assembly at plenary on Tuesday passed a regulations on Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption (Fiscalization) designed to ensure that hotels and event centers remit due taxes to the state government.
    The regulation will also guide against the evasion of taxes by these business concerns thereby boosting the revenue of the state.
    The Regulations includes the registration of electronic fiscal devices, installation of fiscalization software and hardware, power to enter and inspect notifications of points of sale in the hotels and restaurant amongst others.
    The Chairman of the 5-man Ad hoc Committee on Finance, Hon. Oluyinka Ogundimu who said he held series of meetings with the Commissioner for Finance and Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service stated that the regulations will bring about increase in the revenue accruable to the State and the installation of software and hardware for effective monitoring of sale transactions in hotels, restaurants and event centres.
    Ogundimu said the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Ashade said the importance of the regulation is to have the backing of law for easy implementation
    and also to help the State get the revenue as at when due, including the introduction of the fiscal electronic device which was due to the non-remittance of consumption tax by hotels.
    “Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Subair who corroborated the position of the Mr. Ashade stated that the State Government is losing heavily in the area of consumption tax because of non-introduction of electronic device. He added that lots of advocacy and enlightenment programs will be needed to achieve the desired result.
    The Speaker the Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa directed the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni to forward the approval of the Regulations to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
  • Lagos Assembly passes Cooperative College Bill

    Lagos Assembly passes Cooperative College Bill

    The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed into law, a bill for the establishment of Lagos State Cooperative College to further enhance economic development of the state.

    The Assembly passed the bill after Third Reading on the floor of the House on Monday.

    The lawmakers took turns to perfect some corrections in the 31-section bill before it was finally passed by the House.

    The Speaker, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, conducted a voice vote on each of the sections of the bill before passage by the House.

    Obasa said: “Having considered the Third Reading for a bill to establish the Lagos State Cooperative College and for Connected Purposes, the bill is hereby passed into law.’’

    The speaker directed the Clerk of the House, Mr Azeez Sanni, to forward a clean copy of the bill to Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode for his assent.

    NAN reports that the House, however, stepped down, until further notice, report of its Committee on Transportation on Lagos State Waterways Authority Regulation 2017 over some inadequacies.

    The report was laid by the Acting Chairman of the committee, Mr Mojeed Fatai representing Ibeju-Lekki I.

    NAN

  • Re-order 2017 budget – Ambode

    Re-order 2017 budget – Ambode

    The Lagos State Government has written a letter to the state House of Assembly seeking its support for the re-ordering of the 2017 Budget.

    Governor Akinwunmi Ambode made the request in a letter he personally signed, and which was read on the floor of the House by the Clerk, Mr. Azeez Sanni during plenary on Monday.

    According to the request, a total sum of N42.028 Billion made up of N31. 105 Billion from capital expenditure and N10.922 Billion from recurrent expenditure would be re-ordered if the proposal is approved by the Assembly.

    It was stated in the letter that the re-ordering would help in upscaling of road construction and rehabilitation to improve connectivity.

    In addition, Ambode revealed in the letter that the re-ordering would be spent on purchasing 700 buses for Lagbus in line with state transportation reforms, upgrading of equipment for the state emergency authority and improving security equipment for better surveillance.

    This will, however, not affect the total budget of N813 Billion passed for 2017.

    Lagos state Budget
    Budget 2017

    The Governor stated in the letter that the 2017 budget has performed 64% by the middle of the year, adding that the re-ordering was necessitated by the review of the priority of the state government.

    “It is now expedient to re-order the budget to address some of the critical expenditures to enhance efficient delivery of services.

    “We want to provide world-class infrastructure to the people of the state.

    “The proposed re-ordering is expected to increase the tempo of good services and address the priority of the state government.

    “It will address main fiscal strategy and sustain expenditure profile, it will drive capital expenditure by improving the capital recurrent ratio,” he said.

    The proposal was, however, not discussed by the lawmakers before the House adjourned sitting.