The 24 members of the Kwara State House of Assembly recently converged on Ede, Osun State, for a-three day retreat on budget assessment, bills, motions and petitions processing.
Out of the 24 legislators, only six of them are second timers. The remaining 18 are first term lawmakers.
Resources persons were drawn from the National Institute of Legislative Studies (NILS), Abuja and private sector. A retired clerk of the House of Representatives, Chief Niyi Ajiboye was also on hand.
No fewer than 20 members of the Osun state House of Assembly led by their Speaker, Najeem Salam witnessed the closing session of the retreat.
Some of the legislators spoke on their experience at the retreat.
House Majority Leader Alhaji Hassan Oyeleke said: “The seminar was actually designed to address some basic areas. One, assessing budget in line with new International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAs) methods; to assess anything you have to knowledgeable about it and we were taken through has increased out knowledge and understanding of how IPSAs as a new method of accounting system can be used to assess budget.
“The other has to do with how members can function very well. I mean processing of bills and motions. It is important because we come from different backgrounds and the moment one becomes an honourable member, you have to understand your responsibility as a member of the house to address issues properly. This will make us better legislators. It will have a ripple effects on the state government too.”
The legislator from Oke-Ogun Constituency, Kalman Fagbemi said the retreated had fortified him for legislative functions.
Fagbemi, a lawyer, said: “There were certain things we did not know before but now we have conscientised. We are going to use the knowledge which we have acquired here in the passage of 2016 budget. I will urge first timers to use the knowledge which they have acquired in this retreat in discharging their legislative duties.”
Ahmed Ibn Muhammed representing Kaiama/Wajibe/Kemanji constituency said “I want to tell you that with this training I am more equipped with ways to draft bills and motions. This will help me in my legislatives in the state. I believe that with this we are going to apply it.”
The member representing Ilorin North-West, Abdulrafiu Abdulrahaman, noted that the workshop has been a good adventure.
“We have been able to acquire new skills; because as a legislator you have to be acquainted with the basic rudiments in legislation and as a legislator you have to be involved in research,” he added.
Hajia Aisat Budurin from Ilorin East and a first timer hailed the timeliness of the seminar, saying that it has exposed her to the rubrics of legislation.
She added: The retreat has exposed us more knowledge about budgeting. It will assist us on how to do our oversight. They have prepared us to know what to do before, during and after the oversight.
“The resource people are competent hands. They have prepared us well on how to draft motions, bills and petitions which are what we are in assembly for. This will prepare us to be more active in the floor.”
The speaker, Dr Ali Ahmad, said that: “The main reason for the retreat is that bulk of members is first timers. The art of legislation is a technical one. So we need to train and retrain. We hope that at the end of the exercise our legislators will be at par with others in any part of the country.”
The former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary decried the high turnover rate of legislators in the country.
He said: “The high rate of turnover of legislators in the country is hampering effective and efficient legislative functioning in the country. Nigerians should know that it is tax payers’ money that is being used to train new members. It is like bringing a new law student to come and argue motions in court. Nobody can stand up and argue motions or prepare motion; you have to go through the rubric.
“So, if you keep bringing new members those states will keep spending money to train the new members; money that could be used for something else. This expenditure is unnecessary and avoidable.
“The people should start clamouring to our governors, parties and stakeholders to reduce the turnover rate to the minimum so that the money that will be used in training the legislators will be expended on something else.
Alhaji Najeem Salam aligned with his colleague, saying: “Sometimes it is out of the personal interest of some leaders to change the house members. Otherwise, the experience gathered for years is enough for the House of Assembly to continue and you can see the money being wasted on the training of members. Nobody is saying some members had to in the house perpetually.
“Look at what happens in developed democracies, in America, members of the parliament will be there for years. Why they are doing it is because of the experience they had gathered over the years that can be deployed to develop their members and state. There had to be a drastic reduction in the number of new members that will be coming into the assembly.”
Osun State House of Assembly Speaker, Ngion Najeem said it was time the various state Houses of Assembly are weaned financially from the executive.
Salam added that without financial independence for the state legislators “all these trainings will amount to theory and exercise in futility.
“We, therefore, appeal to the presidency to sign the amendment act that will give room for the independence of the states Assembly into law. It is only Lagos state House of Assembly that has partial independence from the executive.”
He urged state assemblymen to put the era of impeachment behind them to ensure stability in the country’s democracy.
“Unnecessary impeachment will not guarantee stability in the country. I appeal to our colleagues not to allow that to happen in Kwara State,” he added.
Former Clerk of the House of Representatives Chief Niyi Ajiboye spoke on the domination of the legislature by the executive.
It is a very serious issue and it is not that easy for the legislature to completely extricate itself from the domination of the executive.
The retired clerk said financial independence of the legislature would make that arm of government more vibrant and effective.
His words: “This is because the executive controls the purse. Whoever controls the purse has the power of almost everything. Without adequate finance for the legislature, it cannot survive and if the legislature does not pander sometimes to the executive, it can be starved of funds. This is the biggest weapon the executive uses against the legislature.
“The only way out is continuous education on their responsibilities, they can overtime during interaction with the executive convince it to leave them alone to manage their affairs; if we have the right people in the right place.
“But this can happen in the state that has a governor that is forthright, ready to work and has no skeleton in his cupboard.
Speaking on “effective legislative exercise,” the Head, Research, NILS, Dr Asimiyu Abiola, said the state Houses of Assembly were more susceptible to executive interference than federal.
He attributed executive interference to inadequate experienced members occasioned by high turnover of legislators.
Dr Abiola recommended strengthening of oversight functions of the legislators to reduce corruption and enhance sustainable development in states.
Others are “independence of anti-corruptions agencies from the executive rather they should report to the legislature; there is a great need to support public trust and confidence about the legislature and other public institutions charged with oversight; indeed, Nigeria does not need so many of the anti-corruption agencies –or anti-corruption laws-if oversight of these agencies and laws can be made more effective.”
This, according to him, will require reversal of legislators’ high turnover more for legislators in the art and science of oversight functions.
He advocated for effective implementation of the Code of Conduct Bureau.
On the budgeting system, Dr Abiola said that Nigeria would only experience growth and development when its budget is 70 percent capital and 30 percent recurrent expenditure.
He added that Nigeria’s budget system had over the years been traditional, but he subscribed to the zero budgeting being proposed by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
“Nigeria’s budgeting system has been traditional. We need outcome based budgeting. Zero-based budgeting is better than traditional but it is not the best,” he said.
He called for a budget act that would specify when the president or governor should present the budget to the legislature, “at the discretion of the president or governor.”
He said budget is expected to “increase employment opportunities or reduce unemployment; reduce inequality and reduce poverty.”
