Ekiti Assembly rejects rubber-stamp tag

The Ekiti State House of Assembly has rejected the tag of a rubber-stamp legislature levelled against it by an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant, Kayode Ojo.

The lawmakers described as demeaning and derogatory the label against the 7th assembly, noting that their support and cooperation with the Governor Biodun Oyebanji-led administration is aimed at delivering dividends of democracy to the people.

The lawmakers, in a statement by the chairman, Ekiti State House of Assembly Committee on media and public affairs, Hon. Babatunde Oke, noted that the 26 members in the last two years have demonstrated capacity with their effective legislative duties, which have been nationally acknowledged.

He said that the Assembly, in the interest of the citizens, would not engage the executive in a fisticuff but work towards improving the lives and livelihood of the people with the passage of bills and motions assented to by the governor.

The statement reads, “By rating and efficiency, the 26 lawmakers that composed the assembly are the most effective and dutiful in the current democratic dispensation in Nigeria in the art of lawmaking and performance of oversight functions. We view this diatribe as one coming from a frustrated politician, whose governorship ambition was dead at the conceptual stage, not even on arrival.

“We considered it an extreme display of political naivety, neophytism and callowness, for any politician to roundly brand or rate an assembly as being rubber-stamp on account of frictionless dealings with the executive to bolster the dividends of democracy for the citizens.

“We are emphatic that the electorate across the 26 state constituencies had a sole mission for voting us into our respective political offices, which was primarily to usher development to their doorsteps, and not to exchange fisticuffs or verbal tirades with the governor in public for cheap political capital.

“As an assembly populated by mature minds, accomplished technocrats and politicians, as well as people of robust antecedents, it will be wrong for us to be throwing tantrums at the executive in the open, when we have an administrative channel of communication to lubricate any friction and straighten rough edges.

“For the records, this Assembly has in the last two years demonstrated capacity, patriotism and unshakeable commitment to act of lawmaking by passing over 30 bills, out of which 24 have been signed into laws and now operational.

“This naysayer and his co-travellers shouldn’t be intellectually lazy to unearth the right facts about the operations of the Assembly under Rt Hon. Adeoye Aribasoye’s leadership. Since its advent in June 6, 2023, all its plenary, parliamentary and public hearing sessions were being given Live streaming, ditto the oversight functions. This is to connect with the people wherever they are. This earned the assembly the Best in ICT integration in Nigeria, by the rating conducted by the Bureau of Public Reforms, office of the Presidency in 2024.

“As part of our oversight functions, this Assembly has not in any way shirked its onerous responsibility in this regard. Many commissioners appointed by Governor Biodun Oyebanji and elected Local Government Chairmen were being summoned to periodically offer accounts of stewardship and appear to shed light on some grey areas around their responsibilities, for proficiency in the delivery and maintenance of shrewd fiscal responsibility in Ekiti’s body polity.

“Besides budget presentations, which have become an annual ritual, Governor Oyebanji used to appear before the assembly on a yearly basis to render accounts of stewardship. This is one area that further buttressed the fact Ekiti Assembly is independent, respected and discharging its duties zealously and conscientiously.

“With all due respect to him, these unsubstantiated attacks and outright lies had vividly amplified the critic’s inept and shallow understanding of the act of governance regarding the executive-legislature relationship, and the doctrine of separation of powers, which was regarded as the bond and basis upon which government is anchored.

“It is our collective submission that making scurrilous comments by branding the house that has delivered so much to promote good governance in Ekiti State and improve the government’s delivery of good governance to the people a rubber stamp, as one coming from a frustrated politician, who has lost touch with reality.

“We appeal to our people to discountenance this misdirected tirade and continue to perceive the assembly as one that is Independent, responsive and with strong muscle and reflex to defend the people in all issues bothering them.”

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