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Okwe Obi, Abuja
YIAGA Africa, yesterday reeled out the performances of the 8th National Assembly, while setting an agenda for the 9th legislators.
The elections observer group said it performed well in legislation and oversights, while members failed in visiting and meeting with their various constituents, establishing and managing constituency offices and responding to their demands.
Its Centre for Legislative Engagement, Lead Researcher, Professor Attahiru Jega, while assessing them, in Abuja, however, said some of the challenges that hampered their performances were not peculiar to the 8th National Assembly. Jega said the study adopted a descriptive qualitative and quantitative research design, while indepth interviews were conducted with the leadership of the National Assembly and chairmen of twelve selected committees; five in Senate and seven in the House.
“A total of 2910 questionnaires were administered in 12 randomly selected states ,two per geo-political zone(one senatorial district and one federal constituency per state),” he said. The former Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said that for the quality of bills to improve, “ NASS should entrench pre-legislative scrutiny as a norm for all proposed legislations (Whether executive or private member bills) except in circumstances where the legislation needs to be fast-tracked because of national emergency.”
He suggested that: “The National Assembly should consider creating a legislative standard committee to oversee the pre-legislative scrutiny process. It should adopt electronic voting on bills and motions. Voting records should be available to members of the public on all NASS online and offline channels.
