Abbas: House of reps committed to meeting expectations of Nigerians

Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, says the green chamber is committed to meeting the yearnings of Nigerians.

Abbas spoke on Monday when he met with development partners at the national assembly.

The speaker said parliament strongly believes in professionalism, efficiency and productivity.

“We are committed to ensuring that the 10th house of representatives can respond to the yearnings and expectations of the citizenry,” he said.

“We have been called to serve at the most critical period in the nation’s political history.”

Abbas said only a committed legislature will be able to deliver service to meet the expectations of the people.

The legislator said his “cardinal policy thrust” 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,” he said.

“This number of members and aides requires improved capacity to cope with the offices’ demands.

“Hence, institutional capacity development is considered one of the priority components of the legislative agenda of the 10th house.”

Abbas said the contributions of technical partners were instrumental to the legislative business of the national assembly in the past, urging them to do more for the 10th assembly.

“We have observed that over the years, some of you have had to engage different committees and departments of the house of representatives to, sometimes, organise programmes without a coordinated approach or needs assessment of the house,” he said.

“The assumption is that each development partner has its area of focus for which budgetary provisions would have been made, and their representatives in Nigeria would engage the relevant committees of the house in that regard.

“While that support is greatly appreciated, there is a need for coordination in the 10th house because of our peculiar challenge of capacity gaps.”

Abbas said the legislative agenda of the 10th house will be a barometer to monitor and evaluate engagement with Nigerians.