Speaker of the House of Representatives,\u00a0 Yakubu Dogara has tasked
\nmembers-elect of the 9th National Assembly to muster courage and work for
\nthe country.<\/p>\n
Dogara said this while making remarks at the opening ceremony of the
\norientation programme for members-elect of the 9th Assembly in Abuja
\nSunday night.<\/p>\n
He said as representatives of the people,\u00a0 if they lacked courage,\u00a0 they
\nwould not be able to serve the electorate.<\/p>\n
“Now let me say something about the National Assembly that we may not
\nlearn in the course of the lectures that will be delivered.<\/p>\n
” I have said that the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly requires
\npeople of courage. Very soon,\u00a0 we members-elect of the National Assembly,
\nwhether distinguished senators and members of the House of
\nRepresentatives, will be required to take an oath of office.<\/p>\n
“But we must always remember that our democracy is organised in such a way
\nthat it is made to be driven by consensus.<\/p>\n
“Where consensus fails, it is always the prerogative of the Parliament or
\nthe National Assembly of Nigeria to go first, in the sense that when it
\ncomes to bills for instance, even where the President has vetoed the bill,
\nif the National Assembly can muster two third of its members,\u00a0 they can
\noverride the bill.<\/p>\n
“And so, with regards to appropriation,\u00a0 no monies will be appropriated or
\nspent in the absence of express legislative authorisation.
\n“That means the budget is the work of the National Parliament. So this
\nwork, of course, requires courage.<\/p>\n
“And we must always remember that as elected members of the National
\nAssembly, let us do the work of the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
“We are meant, as the first institution of democracy, to work with the
\nExecutive and the Judiciary.<\/p>\n
“It was never designed that the National Assembly will work for the
\nExecutive or work for the Judiciary.<\/p>\n
“That is the aspect that I want all of us to pay attention to as we take
\noath as members of the National Assembly. We should know that it is about
\ncourage.<\/p>\n
“It has been said that internal vigilance is the price for liberty. If
\nliberty must be preserved in Nigeria because there is an institution that
\nis internally vigilant.<\/p>\n
“That institution has always been the institution of the National
\nAssembly.”,\u00a0 he said.<\/p>\n
He urged the members-elect to ensure that they work for the people that
\nelected them and not for any other interest.<\/p>\n
While congratulating the members-elect on their victory at the polls,\u00a0 the
\nSpeaker urged them to be attentive during the orientation as topics had
\nbeen drawn up to benefit them in all aspects of their duties.<\/p>\n
Speaker of the House of Representatives,\u00a0 Yakubu Dogara has tasked members-elect of the 9th National Assembly to muster courage and work for the country. Dogara said this while making remarks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n