N120bn Budget: Reps set up committee to assess NASS’ needs

House of Representatives  Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, yesterday inaugurated  a committee to conduct a Needs Assessment of the chamber / National Assembly.

The committee, which is made up of eminent Nigerians and representatives of  civil society organizations,  is to “judiciously determine the proper cost of running the legislative arm of government to enable it play its constitutionally-assigned responsibilities.”

Dogara  said at the inauguration that for the legislative arm to function effectively, resources must be made available by the executive.

“However, resources that may be made available would be based on the actual needs and not greed of the Legislature. There has been no study or assessment of what the legislature needs to perform optimally in Nigeria. We have all been making, at best, educated guesswork on whether the legislature is adequately funded or not,” he said.

“An appropriate Needs Assessment may well find out that the Legislature in Nigeria is overfunded or that it is underfunded. There should be an empirical and objective study to determine this.

“It is as a result, that the House of Representatives made a commitment in its Legislative Agenda to set up an Independent Committee comprising – Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s), independent Groups and professional bodies with the support of international development partners, to conduct a Needs Assessment of the actual requirements of running and maintaining the institution of the House of Representatives/National Assembly in Nigeria in order to carry out its legislative functions.”

The terms of reference of the committee include:

What it would cost the House of Representatives and the National Assembly to conduct Public Hearings on the bills and other legislative measures passed by both chambers, including live coverage of these activities; what it would cost to communicate all its proceedings and activities to its different constituencies and the general public;  what it would cost to build, equip and maintain all the infrastructure, like offices of the bureaucracy, Members, Committee Rooms, Hearing Rooms; modernization of Chambers of both Houses, electronic communications infrastructure, e- parliament facilities; what it would cost the National Assembly to conduct proper policy and budget oversight on the executive branch, including all its agencies in order to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste and what it would cost to take important legislative measures down to the grassroots, to members constituencies.

Members of the Committee include Clement Nwankwo       (PLAC), who is the Chairman; National Institute for Legislative Studies (Secretariat);  Representative of the Clerk to the National Assembly,  Austin Alegeh; NBA President or Representative, Otunba Olufemi  Deru (ICAN President) or Representative,  Waheed Odusile (NUJ President)    or Representative, Elias Mbam (RMAFC)      or Representative, Senator Ita Enang        and Hon Albert Sam-Tsokwa.

Others are Prof Mike Obadan, Dr Kabiru Mato,  Seun Onigbinde (BUDGIT), Idayat Hassan (CDD), Samson Itodo (YIAGA), Ben Arikpo (FEPAR), Saudatu Mahdi (WRAPA),  Mimidoo Achapa (WREP),  Clara Barnet (DFID)    and  Bolaji Kehinde (UNDP).

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