By Chimezie Godfrey
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), has called on the House of Representatives, to create a mechanism to enable it operationalize and track progress in its legislative advocacy.
The Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani who stated this on Tuesday in “A Position Paper Presented to the House of Representatives on the Review of the Legislative Agenda,” said that the creation of legislative advocacy tracking mechanism is long overdue and will allow for collective accountability.
“We urge you to give utmost attention to our suggestion to create a mechanism for operationalizing and tracking progress in your Legislative Advocacy.
“We need not remind ourselves that this is not the first Legislative Agenda to be developed by the National Assembly. Previous House has taken the honorable step of developing a Legislative Agenda to guide and direct their work. In the absence of a mechanism for tracking, refreshing, and re-energizing the Legislative Agenda, they have ended up with very low performance.
“It is our hope and firm belief that this crop of lawmakers are about to transform the tradition of the Legislative Agenda setting if it would also take the critical step of setting up a multi-stakeholder Legislative Advocacy Tracking Committee to ensure the Legislative Agenda is conscientiously implemented and delivered to the Nigerian people.
“We would like to put it on record that we, as civil society organizations, consider ourselves as partners in progress with the National Assembly. We would, therefore, like to be collectively responsible and accountable with this House to every Nigerian for the promises made in your Legislative Agenda.
“The creation of the Legislative Advocacy Tracking Mechanism is long overdue, and will allow for collective accountability. Therefore, we call on the Hon. Speaker to give it his full support by establishing the committee without further delay,” Rafsanjani stated.
He urged the House to fast-track the passage and transmission of Emergency Stimulus Bill, 2020, as the bill forms part of government’s efforts to stimulate the economy to minimize the effect of the COVID-19 restriction orders.
“We recall that on 24 March 2020, the House of Representatives introduced and passed a bill titled Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill, 2020. The draft law was passed by the members of the House of Representatives as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide aid to businesses and individuals in Nigeria.
“The Bill forms part of the Nigerian Federal Government’s concerted effort to stimulate the economy and cushion the effects of travel restrictions and business disruptions from COVID-19.
“Prompt finalization and transmission of the Bill for presidential assent is paramount to provide an appropriate legislative framework on relief to companies and individuals to alleviate the adverse financial consequences of a slowdown in economic activities caused by the Covid-19 disease.
“Protect the employment status of Nigerians who might otherwise become unemployed as a consequence of management decision to retrench personnel in response to the prevailing economic realities; and implementation of holistic measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the vulnerable groups at all levels,” he stated.
In addition, he urged the leadership of the Green Chamber to mainstream e-legislature to enhance the legislative process, citizens’ participation in legislative activities.
According to his submittion on this issue,”Learning from the pandemic era has revealed the importance of incorporating information technology in technical proceedings in the legislative rules and protocols.
“Also, given the impact of Covid-19 pandemic that hampers public gathering in all forms including a public hearing on legislative frameworks, the review of Legislative Agenda must adhere to the principles of transparency, accessibility, inclusivity, and clarity to ensure the robust public participation of citizens in legislative activities.
“We call for sustained transparency in legislative activities with strict adherence to the guidelines on physical distancing and other preventive measures at all levels of the legislature to curb the spread of the pandemic. To enforce these guidelines, the legislature must review the format for the public hearing and all other forms of citizen engagement to enrich various legislative frameworks.
“We stress the importance of sustained partnership among the legislature, Civil Society groups and the media to enlighten Nigerians on key provisions of a Bill. This would ensure the justification and benefits of the Bill reach the last mile of the social strata.”
He also stated that the House should prioritize the amendment to the Electoral Reforms Act, improve coordination in anti-corruption fight, and prompt review of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), amongs other key recommendations.
He added that there should be fiduciary oversight of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), especially on contracts awards, funds allocation and utilization, to further sanitize the public sector and ensure greater transparency and accountability across the MDAs.
On the oversight function of the House of Reps, Rafsanjani urged the House to map out a strategy for an effective oversight duty to cover the implementation of projects, compliance to laws, orders, and policies within state and non-state actors, adding that it is not enough to have laws, but compliance is more important.
He encouraged the National Assembly to intensify legislative oversight to block financial leakages in government, given the recent unaccounted inflows and outflows on Covid-19, while urging the House to step up in monitoring revenues accruing to the government from other revenue streams apart from the oil and gas sector.
He stated that the House should embrace e-legislature in monitoring and evaluation of laws, as he also charged relevant committees to exhaustively investigate reported cases of bribery and corruption.
He further called on the House to strengthen the Accountant General’s Office to ensure compliance with the various recommendations by the Office and promote accountability in the allocation and utilization of public funds intended to counter COVID-19 and to provide economic stimulus packages, among others.
The Human Rights Activist noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed a major gap which is the issue of representation flaw, which revealed a total breach in the representation of the people including their expectations and weak feedback mechanisms to the government at all levels.
“This should be strengthened to efficiently capture the needs and priorities of the constituents with full operationalization of Constituency Offices, which is the centre of legislators’ duty at the NASS.
“Constituency offices should be as important and active as the NASS chambers. The National Assembly can develop a framework for constituency engagement and consultation to ensure full participation of electorates in legislative activities,” he stated.
Rafsanjani called for increased budgetary allocation to the health sector both at national and sub-national levels to meet the Abuja Declaration of at least 15% and above.
He urged the House to ensure that the Basic Health Care Provision fund for health is always included in the budget and thoroughly oversight relevant ministries, departments, and agencies to ensure implementing the provisions.
He also called for the review of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Act, the increase and sustained funding for health with a specific focus on revitalizing Primary Health Care, increased oversight on health ministries, departments and agencies, and increase in the health workforce, among others.
The CISLAC Executive Director, recommended that the House should urgently establish and constitute an inclusive multi-stakeholder Legislative Agenda Tracking Committee.
According to him, a tracking mechanism is critically important at this stage to ensure the legislative agenda serves its intended purpose as guide for the operations of the House and various standing and any ad-hoc committee and to deliver concrete development to the Nigerian people.
“It is our considered opinion that the Committee will have the responsibility to ensure inclusion of the Nigerian people in governance – by bringing on board the voice of critical non-state actors into the operation of this House.
“To ensure coordination and synergy and reduce wastage – representation and participation of non-state actors will foster collaboration and coordination in knowledge and financial resources between this House and the Nigerian public.
“Promote accountability – by ensuring regular review, updates, and corrections to make sure this House delivers on her promise to the Nigerian people.
“We at CISLAC are poised and on standby to provide any technical assistance that may be required to constitute this important committee and develop the necessary operational guidelines.
“We urge you all to consider our pleas and immediately announce and put in place appropriate mechanism for setting up a multi-stakeholder legislative agenda tracking committee,” he stated.