The Speaker of the House of Representatives Dr. Tajudeen Abbas has promised that the House will work more closely with international aid organizations to meet with the yearnings of Nigerians.
Dr Abbas made the remark at an interactive meeting with development partners and technical support organisations in Abuja.
According to him, the purpose of the meeting was to give participants a chance to exchange thoughts and information about the House’s contributions and support on efforts to build the ability of its members and employees, work in which many of the partners have been engaged for more than ten years.
” One of my cardinal policy thrusts, on assumption of office as Speaker of the House, is capacity development for Members and Staff of the House of Representatives. This has become more imperative following the high turnover rate of the 10th House of Representatives where we have over two hundred new Members with hundreds of Legislative Aides. This number of Members and Aides requires improved capacity to cope with the office’s demands. Hence, institutional capacity development is considered one of the priority components of the Legislative Agenda of the 10th House.
“Your interventions have partly contributed to the success story of the Legislative Business of the House in the past. I hope that you will not do less even in this Assembly. The Legislative Agenda of the 10th House is the barometer to monitor and evaluate the engagement of the House with Nigerians and we expect that you will as usual play critical role in the successful implementation of the Agenda”.
He said institution building was the gateway to professionalism, efficiency and productivity, assuring that the 10th House of Representatives would respond to the yearnings and expectations of the citizenry.
The Speaker also stressed the need for coordination among the development partners to achieved the desired goals.
A representative of the British High Commission, Mr Chris Okeke, said the commission’s goal is to support the National Assembly along building democratic and accountable instinct that work for Nigerians.
Mrs Marija Peran of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung foundation, expressed optimism that the 10th assembly will leave a mark in the future, saying the foundation would continue to collaborate with the House in the area of capacity building.
The Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), the Department for International Development (DFID), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Konrade-Adenauer Foundation (kAS), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Partnership to Engage, Reform And Learn (PERL), the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy (CISLAC), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were among the development partners who attended the meeting.
