Abasifreke
Effiong
The
Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly is celebrating her silver jubilee anniversary
with a weeklong event. The theme for the celebration is "Milestones of
Legislative Excellence". Spokesman for the House of Assembly, Barr. Ime
Okon said the essence of the event is to take "a critical look at the past
and construct the future".
In
line with this aim, this piece takes a look at leadership in the sixth
assembly, and how the House of Assembly is managing its growing public
expectations.
As
political participation grows, a broad chorus of expectations beyond
law-making, checks and balances, has been chanted louder by constituents.
Hence, the legislature in the last 16 years of democracy up-takes far more
obligations. Significant among the new desires of constituents are empowerment,
inclusion, and advocacy.
Unfortunately,
these expectancies are growing at a time when Houses of Assembly are facing
great leadership crisis. For instance, Nigerians had watched the free-for-all
"royal rumble" on the floor of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly.
Members fought themselves, sustained injuries and destroyed property over
Governor Tanko Al-Makura's appointment of sole administrators to local
government councils. In the same vein, serious fisticuffs took place in Edo
House of Assembly over attempt by members to impeach the Speaker, Justin
Okonoboh, Deputy Speaker Elizabeth Atvie and Majority Leader, Folly Ogedengbe.
There was a brawl in the Nigerian senate that almost resulted in fisticuffs.
These events happened in the last two years.
While
Houses were boiling elsewhere, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly was showing
good example in team work. From the Elder Aniekan Uko led leadership, the brief
transitional leadership of Mr. Effiong Bassey, to the present, led by Barr.
Onofiok Luke; the sixth Akwa Ibom House of Assembly has made excellent
milestones in leadership.
Under
every regime in the House, members have made positive statements about
leadership. For instance, the Leader of government business in the House,
Comrade Udo Kieran Akpan said at the close of the first session of the current
assembly that Elder Aniekan Uko's regime stabilized the sixth assembly.
A
lot of assessments and evaluations have been made about the Barr. Onofiok
Luke's leadership, all turned out overwhelmingly in the positive. Spokesman of
the sixth Assembly, Barr. Ime Okon says "members are comfortable with the
leadership of Barr. Onofiok Luke, and he enjoys [their] confidence".
The
secrets to leadership's success in the sixth assembly as this writer found out
are, transparency, inclusion, and dialogue.
Member
Mbo and Chairman House Committee on Education, Mr. Samuel Ufuo said current
leadership-membership relationship in the House of Assembly is "very very
cordial and generally transparent".
"The
Speaker is transparent. If there is anything that needs to be done, he calls
all of us, we sit down together and discuss. No matter how tight it is, the
Speaker calls an emergency meeting where every member makes inputs".
On
inclusion, he noted that leadership of the House always ensures that all
members are party to legislative-executive engagements, hence no member feels
sidelined.
"If
there is any major issue to discuss with the Governor, the Speaker always
pleads that the Governor meets all of us. Onofiok is not a leader that would
say let me go and meet the governor alone".
This
approach is the ointment that has kept the relationship between the legislature
and executive very smooth despite pressures on, and incitement of one arm
against the other. For instance, many people had envisioned a frosty
relationship between the two arms particularly when the legislators
"talked tough" on the anchor borrowers scheme. Each time emotions
raged like a storm, mostly due to inability to pass on adequate information at
the right time as the case was with the anchor borrowers scheme, smiles take
over by the next sitting.
Ufuo
said extensive, exhaustive and amicable dialogue has kept leadership of the
sixth assembly out of intra-house and inter-arm conflicts; making the House a
model of peace and legislative-executive cooperation.
Beyond
these secrets, there are proofs that the sixth assembly has made a milestone in
good leadership example. For instance, recently, when the Barr. Onofiok Luke's
led leadership undertook major leadership changes, media reports made it a
focus, with many threatening political imputations. Against all permutations,
the 26 members are still holding hands, celebrating themselves, their families
and events.
Extensive
dialogue has paid off too at committee levels. There have been differences.
Every time dialogue takes it away.
Interestingly,
elsewhere lawmakers are busying themselves "fighting" their House
leadership or their governor. In Akwa Ibom State, everyone is vigorously
pursuing human empowerment. Empowerment is one of the legislative agenda of the
sixth assembly. In the last two years, about 20 of the 26 members have given
out well over 180 cars, motorcycles, start-up capitals, scholarship and bursary
grants to their constituents. Human capacity development particularly skills
training is one growing new focus of the Akwa Ibom State legislature. This is
where the difference lies.
Another
focus is broadening legislative participation. The sixth assembly is widening
public contributions to law- making. The current House of Assembly has held 40
Public hearings on Bills. Lawmakers have stayed advocacy, pushing to
government's attention important needs of communities and special interest
groups. From these advocacies, at least 100 resolutions from 48 motions, and
100 recommendations on matters of urgent public importance have been made.
Much
more than all else, the sixth assembly has vigorously applied itself greatly
towards citizens' welfare and making laws to improve revenue generation. The
sixth Assembly has made a commitment that, going forward, Akwa Ibom State
Government should be sufficient to pay up salaries of workers without depending
on federal allocations. The House is working closely with the executive on
Bills and policies that will make this possible.
In
two years, the sixth assembly has passed 18 Bills into law. Most of them,
including the Akwa Ibom State Health Insurance Agency Bill and Physically
Challenged Persons Protection Bill, are targeted at improving welfare of citizens.
By these Bills, the sixth assembly shows itself prominently in the lives of the
haves-not and defenseless.
After
the celebrations, in constructing the future, the legislature and executive
must work together to give Akwa Ibom State a strategic development plan, either
for short-term or long-term. This piece concludes with an advocacy for
involvement of the legislature at every stage of development of the work plan.
Happy
Silver Jubilee Celebrations, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.
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