Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Conference of Speakers of the Houses of Assembly in the South West held a crucial meeting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, yesterday, during which they validated and adopted harmonised standing orders for the legislature in the region.
The harmonised standing orders will make the procedures for removing presiding principal officers of the parliament in each of the six states in the zone.
Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, who is also chairman of the conference led others to the meeting.
The review meeting was attended by speakers of all Houses of Assembly and principal officers in the zone, including the Majority Leader of Osun Assembly, Timothy Owoeye, who is the chairman, South West Legislative Implementation Committee.
Obasa who spoke with journalists said the essence of the gathering was to work on the proposed harmonised rules for the legislature in the zone.
He added that majority leaders of Houses of Assembly in the zone have been asked to work on it.
Obasa explained that the harmonised rule would further deepen democracy in the zone by guarding against a situation whereby some lawmakers would begin impeachment move against a particular speaker and would also complete it by removing him during the same plenary.
“This is beyond politics. It is a way to develop democracy in the South West. Having the rules in all the Houses of Assembly will help in stabilising democracy. For me, I strongly believe that parliament is all about democracy. Without the parliament, it means there is no democracy. So, the more we are able to develop the institution called parliament, the more we grow our democracy in this part of the world,” he said.
Owoeye said the conference was inaugurated in June 2017 “and the committee was made up of all majority leaders in the Houses of Assembly in the South West and I am the chairman of the committee.
‘‘The committee was tasked at look at the standing orders of all the Houses of Assembloy in the South West, have somethings in common, have harmonised standing orders, financial autonomy tha we have already achieved through constitution amendment done some months.”