The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, Ph.D has said that the Legislative Agenda of the 10th House currently being worked out would champion causes toward addressing the yearnings of Nigerians.
The Speaker, in his address at a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the House’ Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Agenda in Abuja on Monday, said the parliament was ready to welcome citizens’ participation in the efforts towards addressing the challenges facing the country. Speaker Abbas noted that it was a “critical stakeholders’ meeting” to harness citizens’ input to the Legislative Agenda of the 10th House.
He said: “Our desire is to have a legislative agenda that meets the yearnings and aspirations of citizens and with which they would use as a benchmark to evaluate and assess our performance after four years. Therefore, today’s meeting should not be seen as the usual talk-shop. Consider it a critical national assignment. “There is no better way to show that the 10th Houses of Representatives is ready to respond, and urgently too, to the yearnings of those who brought us to the people’s House to do the people’s business,” he noted. He said the public engagement was maintaining the resolve of the House, as representatives of the people, to regularly consult citizens in the discharge of the mandate given to the lawmakers.
The Speaker recalled while welcoming members of the House from a short recess on July 4, 2023, that he declared the 10th House as “the House of the People.” He said: “I equally promised that while it is the duty of the House to develop a Legislative Agenda for which our constituents will hold us accountable, the House would not hesitate to consult critical stakeholders in developing the agenda to elicit their input and areas of expectations, which is the reason we have gathered here this morning.”
Speaker Abbas noted that citizens’ engagement is the fulcrum of a representative democracy, saying, “It is only through such engagements that legislators will become, truly, the representatives of the people. To do otherwise, will amount to a democracy without the people,” he added.
