Abdullahi Gumel, senator representing Jigawa north, says governors elected as lawmakers need extensive training in order to carry out the mandate of the legislature.
Gumel, who lost his re-election bid, said have spent years in the executive arm of government, the governors need to be exposed to the world of making laws.
He said: “The experience they have is executive experience, not legislative experience. The legislature is in a world of its own and its rudiments must be learnt.”
He also expressed concern over the decline in the number of senators returning to the 9th national assembly.
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Gumel said the country often spends a lot of money training and retraining lawmakers to master the act of effective lawmaking, “only to stay for four years or, at most, eight years”.
The lawmaker said the continuous turnover of lawmakers in the national assembly, particularly at the senate, had negative implications.
He said the development had led to loss of experience in legislative activities and waste of the nation’s resources, among others.
“In developed democracies, you see someone spending 30 to 40 years in the parliament, gathering experience and not wasting the nation’s resources,” he said.
“In every set of the legislature, the lawmakers undergo capacity building in terms of training within and outside the country, and the nation spends a lot to build their capacity.
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“Unfortunately, in every election, we lose such talents and we have to start all over again.”
Gumel hoped that Nigeria would learn from other countries by ensuring that lawmakers win their re-election bids as many times as possible.
He, however, urged lawmakers to live up to expectations in order to gain the support of their constituents to get re-elected “as many times as they want.”
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