Competent legislature needs to deliver effective representation, says Don

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3 years ago

A Political Science Professor from the University of Ibadan, Prof. Remi Aiyede has charged the intending legislatures with their statutory roles and expectations of the people who elected them into power.

Speaking at Fund Raising and Lecture organised by Prince Bolaji Oyekanmi (PBO) Campaign Organisation with the theme: ‘For The Emerging Of A New Nigeria: The Role Of A Competent Legislature’ held in Ibadan Aiyede stated that the roles and expectations from a competent legislature.

Aiyede disclosed that a competent legislature should be able to represent his people and should be able to make laws that will be of good to the people of his constituency and the society at large.

“A competent legislature should be able to play the role of legislative legitimately. There are three fundamental roles for them to be a competent legislature, first the representation, lawmaking is the second one they do, while the third function for them is the oversight function.

“A competent legislature should effectively be able to represent his people and should be able to make laws that will be of good to the people of the society, we also expect a competent legislature to be able to do oversight over the activities of the executives so that government can perform optimally, this will brings good and benefits to members of the society, those are the key things the legislature should be able to do.

“To be able to perform optimally, legislature need some certain requirements or competences, which we also expect from the legislature as a body and as a member of the parliamentarians we expect minimum competency to understand what their roles should be and also to be able to collaborate and work effectively using experts to understand issues and analyse them to be able to make appropriate laws to solve those problems and those issues.

“Most legislatures do not appreciate these technical aspects of their functions, that is why despite all the committees they have, they have the resources but they are not delivering the good, as a group what is very important is what is called political skills because in parliament you will have a diversity of people coming from different parts of the country representing different constituencies, different senatorial districts and so on.

“The demand and aspirations from different parts of the country often diverge their priority and preferences can vary and the competent parliament should be able to push through his own agenda not necessary by stopping agendas of others but by reaching some level of understanding through negotiations, interactions and bargaining to ensure that everyone gets something at the end of the day.”

Earlier in his welcome address, Prince Bolaji Oyekanmi a candidate for Osogbo Federal Constituency under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said, “It is in my desire to learn and see what support system is ought to be for a competent legislature.

“This lecture is very crucial for someone who wants a good representation for his people, I always asked why people complain about the legislative that they are not able to take some certain responsibilities, that is why we are here to hear from those who understand it and who knows it. Who knows the constitutional and the moral backing for the legislature to properly and efficiently support the executive to ensure adequate representation for their people.”

“What I have is support, which I keep canvassing for, godfatherism pollutes the integrity of the candidate, legislatures and office holders in general, so I’m looking at getting to meet people on daily basis and that is what we have been doing, I’m not answerable to any godfather but my people and that is what exactly have been doing. I’m running for the House of Representatives, Osogbo federal constituency, which is Osogbo, Oranlu, Irepo and Olorunda local government areas and I’m promising them a good representation,” Bolaji said.

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