Kwara state Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalist, Abdullateef ‘Lanre Ahmed has lamented that state Houses of Assembly have continued to parade themselves as mere appendages of the executive, thus belittling the temple of lawmaking.
Ahmed who stated this in Ilorin at the 36th edition of the media parliament noted that what has been regrettably observed over the years are parliaments that are complicit and complacent, thus submitting its sovereignty to the executive on one hand and making mockery of itself on the other whether wittingly or unwittingly.
According to the number one journalist in Kwara state, in a standard democratic setting, the legislative branch of government should ordinarily be the ‘Primus Inter Paris’ but the reverse is the case in our clime.
He expressed optimism that if the legislative branch of government restructures and prides itself as an independent arm whose work including enactment of laws, oversight and representation, reflect the wishes and aspirations of the people, the society is on the verge of getting it right.
The guest speaker at the event, a House of Representatives Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for Ifelodun/Offa/Oyun Federal Constituency, Saheed Olamilekan Popoola,who spoke on the media parliament titled “With quality legislative, social re-engineering is possible”, described legislation as the most important aspect of governance and appealed to the electorate to vote reasonable individuals into the legislative arm for quality representation.
He also canvassed local government autonomy, saying that there will be a little challenge at the third tier of government if they received funds meant for them directly devoid of the undue interference of the state government.
Popoola, whose seat of Ojomu/Balogun Constituency of Offa Local Government was declared vacant in the state House of Assembly, took a swipe at the lawmakers in some state Houses of Assembly for their failure to concurrently pass the autonomy bill for local government areas.
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