As 6th AKHA resumes 2nd Legislative Year

BY EDIDIONG UDOBIA

On Wednesday, June 8, 2016, the 6th Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly otherwise called the People’s Assembly, formally closed the curtain of the first legislative year. The Assembly, which comprises 26 (20 first-timers and 6 second-timers) Members, was inaugurated on Monday, June 8, 2015. Within the first year, the 6th Assembly was characterized by depth, unity, experience and vibrancy. Interestingly, these characteristics were very visible during the over 50 plenary sessions held in the first legislative year.

Agreed, the 6th Assembly faced some daunting challenges which left it unstable for most part of the 1st legislative year. For instance, barely 6 months after the inauguration of the Assembly, the then Speaker, Elder Aniekan Uko; the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Effiong Bassey and two other members, were sacked following the Court of Appeal judgement which nullified their elections. The incident caused a serious setback to the Assembly as it was compelled to function without the affected members for over four months.

In his address to mark the end of the first legislative year, Rt. Hon. (Barr.) Onofiok Luke, who succeeded Elder Uko as Speaker, said; “You will agree with me that coming where we are today, we have had several huddles to cross together. We have had money, energy, and time-sapping court cases to handle as individual members. We had court judgements which led to unfortunate rerun elections and a brief disruption of the House leadership. But even in the face of all these, the last one year was a productive one in which we prevailed against the odds”.

According to Speaker Luke, within the 1st legislative year, the House received some executive and private member bills out of which a few were passed into law. He further noted that due to the challenges, the House could not pass some very important Bills in the 1st legislative year but promised that they will be given accelerated attention in the 2nd legislative year. He promised a more effective performance in the representative and oversight functions.

“On the representation plank of our responsibility, we must admit that we have not measured up to expectations in the last one year as a collective. As a listening assembly, we are not unaware of the palpable demands for constituency briefing by our constituents. We also do know that constituency briefings in our clime usually come with empowerment programmes. We often embark on those financial empowerment initiatives from savings made from our entitlements and emoluments as lawmakers.”

Nevertheless, in oversight functions, kudos must be given to some House Committees for their sterling performance even in the face of the challenges. Worthy of mention are the House Committee on Works which was headed by Prince Idongesit Ituen and House Committee on Finance and Appropriations, headed by Hon. Usoro Akpanusoh. While the Prince Ituen led Works Committee worked tirelessly to ensure checks and balances in the construction/rehabilitation of roads in the state, the Akpanusoh led Finance and Appropriations Committee should be commended for the thorough job it did during the 2016 budget defence by government Ministries, Agencies and Parastatals.

The recess
Shortly after the end of the 1st legislative year, the 6th Assembly proceeded on a recess. The period was to enable members of the Assembly recuperate after a very exhausting legislative year while warming up for the new year. However, out of the ingenuity of Speaker Luke, the Assembly seized the period to engage the members in seminars and retreat to further boost their legislative capacity. Notable is the recent 3-day retreat on “Legislating for Sustainable Development” held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The retreat was in conjunction with the National Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS.

Two major papers which were presented at the retreat by erudite scholars, Dr. Jake Dan-Azumi and Dr. Shuaibu Danwanka respectively were “Committee System: Oversight and Reporting” and “Public Hearing and Investigative System”. One of the highlights of the seminar was the unanimous decision of the Lawmakers to advocate for the financial autonomy of the Legislature, which was reflected in the communiqué issued at the end of the retreat. They also emphasised on the need for the legislature to be recognised as a lawmaking body, noting particularly that “the role of the legislature, in the consideration of appropriation bills, should be holistic to include sectoral increase, reduction, and inclusion of projects and programmes of felt public needs not captured in the budget by the executive.”

In their separate remarks, the lawmakers, while speaking during the first plenary in the new legislative year, commended the Speaker for organizing the retreat, which they noted was very rewarding.

Also worthy of note, is the fact that the leadership of the 6th Assembly through the House Services Committee seized the break to carry out a massive renovation work at the Assembly complex. Very outstanding is the new look which the Assembly Chambers is wearing while more renovation work is ongoing in other parts of the complex. This also earned the Speaker commendations from the lawmakers. In his response, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. (Barr.) Onofiok Luke noted that the renovation was long overdue and urged the lawmakers to take full advantage of the new environment in order to improve upon their performance.

The new legislative year
On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, the 6th Assembly resumed after the recess. As earlier promised by the Speaker, the new legislative year started on high note. For instance, in the first plenary, the “Bill for a Law to Establish the Akwa Ibom State School of Health Technology for training of various health professions and for other matters connected therewith” passed the second reading. Ordinarily, the Bill would have been forwarded to the House Committee on Health for further legislative actions but following the dissolution of the House Committees upon resumption of the new year, the Speaker noted that the Bill will be handled by the Committee on the whole.

The second legislative year will apparently be a very busy one for members of 6th Assembly. This is because from investigations, there are no fewer than 28 pending matters which require the attention of the lawmakers. Among the pending matters are 12 Bills which were left at the Committee level, 5 Bills to be re-presented, 9 motions and many matters of urgent public importance. But besides the pending matters, many news matters in form of Bills and motions will be flooding the House. Also, the 6th Assembly is set to deliver a more superior performance in its representative and oversight duties.

Prospects of the second legislative year
As the second legislative year commences, the 6th Assembly is poised to raise the bar in the legislative business in order to contribute to the development of the state and betterment of the people. Some members speak on the prospects for the second legislative year;

“We guarantee our constituents a more robust year as we proceed to our second legislative year. We look to engaging more deeply with our partners on all fronts so as to actualise our human capacity development initiatives. As you may know, we have kick-started our engagements with the National Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS. We have also opened talks with the Denmark Embassy in Nigeria. We shall engage on all fronts with these strategic local and foreign partners like the USAID, the International Republican Institute, IRI, and the McAuthur Foundation. These efforts will be put in place towards making our legislative system work better.

“Our lawmaking capacity will be more fecund. With fewer distractions, we will ensure that pending bills and motions enjoy accelerated legislative actions. We intend to embark on the enactment of newer legislations especially in four key areas. Firstly, we will channel our legislative actions towards giving robust content to our free and compulsory education programme. We plan to partner our state university, polytechnic, and the colleges in their mission to gain accreditation for more courses”. -Rt. Hon. (Barr.) Onofiok Luke, Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.

“Our people should expect a more responsive assembly to their  yearnings and needs. An assembly committed to the welfare and development of our constituents. We will cooperate with the executive  arm of government for the purpose of positively affecting the standard of living of our people, without compromising our independence. An assembly that will step up its oversight functions on the executive to serve our people better. We have also resolved to treat bills and all other assignments with dispatch to make up the time we lost in the Ist session” -Rt. Hon (Barr.) Ime Okon, Member representing Ibiono Ibom State Constituency.

During the 2016 budget defense by government ministries and agencies, the House Assembly through the Committee on Finance and Appropriations had emphasised the need for ministries and agencies to prioritize generation of internal revenue as a means of reducing the financial burden on the government. Besides making laws capable of empowering the government in this regard, the Assembly also ensures compliance by these government agencies through its oversight functions. Considering the present economic realities, the 6th Assembly will further strength its oversight responsibility in the new legislative year. 

Also, with the sudden rise in crime rate and other vices, the state is facing serious security challenges. The menace of Fulani herdsmen is a threat to the state. In its legislative capacity, the 6th Assembly will place premium on laws that will strengthen and enhance the security of lives and properties in the state. The 6th Assembly will also seek to establish closer relationship with the people through its representative functions. As admitted by the Speaker, the Assembly did not live up to the expectations in this regard in the last legislative year. However, with the smooth take-off in the new legislative year and barring unnecessary distractions, the 6th Assembly will deliver a robust and more effective representation. 

“We look to initiating laws to vitalize the administration’s efforts towards strengthening our internally generated revenue. Amidst less fortune from oil, we intend to make laws to support the state executive’s exploits in the non-oil sector. Thirdly, we shall be targeting an improvement in the primary healthcare delivery initiative of government. From the basic to secondary and to tertiary healthcare delivery systems, we have identified areas which require very urgent legislation for better service to our people. We hope to meet these needs in the coming months”, said Speaker Luke.

As the 6th Assembly resumes the second legislative year, there are so much expectations from the people, who were apparently not so satisfied with the performance of the Assembly in the 1st legislative year. It is on this note that the lawmakers resumed the new legislative year by hitting the ground running.

The 6th Assembly is determined to regain the confidence of the people and live up to its name as the People’s Assembly. The Assembly will ensure that a people-oriented Bill like “a law to protect the physically challenged persons against discriminations and provide for equal opportunities for all and other matters connected therewith” is given priority. Most importantly, the 6th Assembly is ready deliver more dividends of effective representation to the people through its representative and oversight functions.