BY RT. HON DOGARA YAKUBU ON ELECTION AS SPEAKER OF 8TH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON 9TH JUNE 2015<\/p>\n
It is with a deep sense of honour, humility, and with gratitude to God
\nthat I take the chair as Speaker of the 8th House of Representatives of
\nthe Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
2. I want to express my sincere appreciation to my colleagues, Honourable
\nmembers of this House, for this confidence you have reposed in me and for
\nthis huge responsibility you have thrust on me.<\/p>\n
3. May I also express my thanks to our Party, the All Progressive
\nCongress, APC, for providing us with the platform to come to the House.To
\nmy Constituents, the great people of Bogoro\/ Dass\/ TafawaBalewa federal
\nConstituency of Bauchi State, I thank you for sending me once again to the
\nNational Assembly. To our dear President, President Muhammadu Buhari,
\nGCFR, we say thank you for providing the leadership through which CHANGE
\ncame to Nigeria and for also providing the enabling environment that made
\nthis day possible. Of course, my wife and family have remained my greatest
\npillar of strength. To all our Campaign Staff and all those, too many to
\nmention, who played a role one way or the other for this day to come, my
\nsincere appreciation.<\/p>\n
4. I must commend the transparent nature of this election as a tribute to
\nthe bureaucracy of the National Assembly led by the Clerk to the National
\nAssembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa, and the Clerk House of Representatives,
\nAlhaji M.A. SANI \u2013 OMOLORI and other National Assembly Officials and
\nStaff. To all the past leaders of this legislative institution, we thank
\nyou for your continued support. To the media and all those who report or
\nwork in the National Assembly, we are most grateful for your support. This
\nvictory is for all Nigerians.<\/p>\n
5. I salute the doggedness and service of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who
\nfought a good fight and who has served this House and the nation with
\ndistinction. Together we will heal the wounds and divisions of this
\ncontest. Together we shall work to deliver good legislation and good
\ngovernment to our people.<\/p>\n
6. I wish to use this opportunity to formally welcome all of us both new
\nand returning members to the 8th National Assembly. Inauguration of the
\n8th House of Representatives should be a day of joy for members who toiled
\nday and night and went through great difficulties to be elected. It is
\nindeed a wonderful honour and privilege to be entrusted with so great a
\nresponsibility and opportunity by our constituents. You are one of the 360
\nNigerians to be so honoured out of over 150 million people. To God be the
\nglory.<\/p>\n
7. What has been demonstrated here today, is the resolve of Members of the
\nHouse to assert the independence of the legislature as a co-equal arm of
\ngovernment. My dear colleagues, by electing me as Speaker you have
\ndemonstrated to the world that our legislature is living up to the dreams
\nand aspirations of our founding fathers. You are leaving a legacy of an
\naccountable, autonomous, focused, progressive and united House capable of
\nplaying its role as the stabilizing force in our polity. We have shown
\nonce again that this is a House of the Nigerian people.<\/p>\n
8. After 16 years of unbroken experiment in Constitutional democracy, it
\nis right to say that the Nigerian legislature has come of age. The House
\ncontinues to remain the repository of the democratic hopes and ambitious
\nof our people. This is a truly representative Chamber that can be relied
\nupon to rise to the occasion when duty calls.<\/p>\n
9. It should be noted that we are heirs, to a long tradition of a House
\nwhere debates are robustly undertaken, where radicalism flows as an
\ninstitutional prerogative. We continue to be the bulwark for the defence
\nof the rights and privileges of the “common man”. We shall continue to
\nchampion the rights of the weak and poor. We shall continue to be the
\nanchor for the wellbeing of our people.<\/p>\n
10. My Honourable Colleagues, after the euphoria of today comes the
\ndifficulties of tomorrow. We take office at a period in our history when
\nthe morale of our people are at its lowest ebb. We take office when our
\neconomy is in shambles, when the living conditions of Nigerians are in
\npoor shape, when infrastructures are nonexistent or at best decayed. Our
\npeople are no longer safe in their homes .We face a debt crises once
\nagain. We are in a period of great social and political malaise. Provision
\nof basic necessities of life for our people is becoming increasingly
\ndifficult. Long fuel lines, high cost of living, and epileptic electricity
\nsupply or in most instances complete darkness has become the order of the
\nday. The Health needs of the majority of our people are not being met.
\nExtreme poverty still envelopes a large percentage of our population. For
\ntoo long, Nigerians have suffered degradation and neglect. The list is
\nendless.<\/p>\n
11. It will be unfair to say that efforts have not been made by our past
\nleaders to solve all these problems. Quite to the contrary, a lot of
\nprogress has been made in many fields. But it appears as if we have not
\ndone enough, as the problems still remain.<\/p>\n
12. We are poised to use our new office to wage a mortal combat with the
\ncancer of corruption, incompetence, insecurity, bad governance and
\ninfrastructural decay. We shall wage an unrelenting legislative war on
\ninsecurity, unemployment, poverty, lack of power supply, educational
\ninadequacies, health problems and social decay.<\/p>\n
13. We have run out of excuses.<\/p>\n
14. We may be accused of falling short at the end of the day, but we will
\nnot be accused of not doing our best to reposition this nation, Nigeria,
\nas a beacon of hope for Africa. We hope that our best will be good enough.<\/p>\n
15. I pledge to you my colleagues and Nigerians that we will play our part
\nin this new opportunity offered us by Nigerians to recover our nation from
\nthe clutches of hunger, poverty, disease, social, economic, political and
\ninfrastructural quagmire.<\/p>\n
16. It is now our responsibility to fashion out the legislative
\ninstruments that will lead to Nigeria’s renaissance. Let the word go forth
\nfrom here that it shall not be legislative business as usual again in
\nNigeria.<\/p>\n
17. We, as a parliament can only justify the confidence of our people by
\nkeeping faith with our duties of Law making, Representation and Oversight
\nof the Executive arm of government. However, inspite of our responsibility
\nfor checking and balancing the Executive, good governance can only be
\neffected when all arms of government are working in harmony and
\npartnership to bring about the CHANGES voted for by Nigerians on March 28,
\n2015.<\/p>\n
18. We shall cooperate and work harmoniously with the Senate of the
\nFederal Republic of Nigeria to deliver on the mandate given to us by
\nNigerians.<\/p>\n
19. We have already outlined a legislative Programme of Action and a
\nlegislative compass to guide our actions in office in the document titled:
\nMy Legislative Agenda for the 8th House of Representatives” which was
\nreleased recently.<\/p>\n
20. Highlights of our Legislative proposals are:
\nv\u00a0 Enhancing the independence and autonomy of the House of
\nRepresentatives while maintaining a robust and cooperative relationship
\nwith the Executive.
\nv\u00a0 Overhauling the Budgetary processes of the National Assembly
\nv\u00a0 Improved Oversight coordination and processes
\nv\u00a0 Strengthening the Committees of the House of Representatives
\nv\u00a0 Transparency and accountability on the issue of Salaries, Allowances
\nand Running Cost of the Legislature:
\nv\u00a0 Improving communications with the General Public.
\nv\u00a0 Conducting a Legislative Needs Assessment.
\nv\u00a0 Review of the Standing Orders of the House
\nv\u00a0 Introducing a robust Code of Conduct for Members
\nv\u00a0 Strengthening the Committees of the House of Representatives
\nv\u00a0 Improving Physical Structures and\u00a0 Equipment used in the House
\nv\u00a0 Priority Legislation, Other legislative measures\u00a0 and Conclusion of
\nOutstanding Bills from the 7th House of Representatives:<\/p>\n
21. We further pledged that:
\n\u201cThe 8th House of Representatives will concentrate on legislation that
\nwill bring the changes required and voted for by Nigerians. Legislative
\nmeasures that will tackle the issue of endemic unemployment crises;
\ninsecurity of lives and property; poverty alleviation; health and
\neducation; Endemic Corruption; electricity and Energy crises; General
\ninfrastructure decay etc. We shall work closely and speedily to pass
\nlegislation that will tackle these matters.\u201d
\nWe also propose to introduce the following:<\/p>\n
\u201cSectoral Debates:
\nSectoral debates on various aspects of the Nigerian economy are some of
\nthe legislative measures we would introduce …This proposal envisages
\nthat the House will designate specific legislative sitting days or weeks
\nin its calendar specifically for discussion on various problems facing the
\nnation. Such identified themes, sectors, areas or problems include\u00a0 –
\nUnemployment, Health, Education and Social Services; Power\/Energy Sector,
\nOil and Gas, Science and Technology; Commerce and Industry;
\nTransportation; Telecommunications; Agriculture; Mining; Manufacturing;
\nDiversification of the Economy, Finance, Corruption, Security Matters,
\nInfrastructure etc.<\/p>\n
We expect that these debates will lead to crafting of new laws or
\namendment to existing ones or indeed make recommendations on how to better
\nmanage the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
We shall fine-tune this document and present it to the entire House for
\ndebate, amendments and adoption as soon as we commence legislative duties.<\/p>\n
22. CONCLUSION:
\nLet me once again thank my colleagues for this honour and to all Nigerians
\nfor their interest and participation in this keenly contested race.
\nElections are over. The onerous task of governance begins. I plead with
\nall the supporters of both camps in this election to quickly bury the
\nhatchet and forge a united front to tackle the myriads of problems facing
\nthe nation.<\/p>\n
I thank you all and may God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY RT. HON DOGARA YAKUBU ON ELECTION AS SPEAKER OF 8TH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON 9TH JUNE 2015 It is with a deep sense of honour, humility, and with gratitude…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n