Anambra State Government Holds Workshop For 6th Assembly

www.odogwublog.com reports that the newly elected members of the state House assembly both the first
timer and the re-elected members have concluded a two day induction workshop in Awka.
            The workshop which has its theme as “Effectiveness in Legislation was held at Best Western Hotels, Awka and the resource organization was Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Enugu campus which was anchored by Dr. Uzochukwu Amakom.
            While declaring the induction workshop open, Governor Willie Obiano took time to articulate to the 6th Assembly his developmental plans for the state and solicited for their supports. Governor Obiano insisted that the socio-economic and political challenges of the state would not be one man’s responsibilities, hence needed the cooperation from the Honourable State House members. He maintained that for him to achieve his four pillars of his administration’s transformation agenda, which include agriculture, trade and commerce, oil and gas and industrialization, all hands must be on deck.
            “I cannot do the work of socio-economic and political transformation alone. I must remind you that if this state must move forward, you people should cooperate with me not by only making good laws but also be mindful of timeframe”, the governor said.
            During one of his lectures, one of the resource persons for the induction workshop, Dr. Uzochukwu Amakom charged the 6th Assembly to assist the executive arm of government in generating revenue to the state. He disclosed that research reviews that over 90% of the budget passed by States House of Assembly in the federation were executive bills and delay or bias on such bills hampers the development of a state. He also advised government to always present realistic budgets as lumped budget presentation would make lawmakers clueless, redundant and unproductive in their oversight functions.
            “The appropriation bill should be carefully scrutinized because the gap between the budget and the actual spending is too wide. Also de-lumping of budget would be necessary because it will help legislators on their oversight function. There should be a Legislature Budget Research Office (LeBuRO) established in all the states assembly”, he said.
            Some of the participants, Hon. Beverly Ikpeazu-Nkemdiche, representing Onitsha South II constituency; Hon. Uche Okafor, representing Ayamelum and Hon. Obinna Emenaka who spoke to our correspondent assert that the workshop widen their knowledge about the legislation. They maintained that the workshop is timely.
In a separate interview, Hon. Ikechukwu Umeh, representing Aguata I and Hon. Barr Kingsley Iruba, representing Nnewi South I constituencies also participants said that the first timers in the hallowed chamber needed to be trained and the re-elected also needed to be retrained in order to meet up with the global best practices of classic legislation.
“Though there are need to cooperate with the Executive arm of government, we should also remember that unprincipled cooperation would amount to bastardize the expectation and interest of the citizenry, they said.