Jumoke Olasunkanmi
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, has explained that the creation of 25 additional House standing committees was aimed at strengthening legislative oversight on Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the Government to improve efficiency and transparency in the legislative process.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Speaker, Mr. Musa Abdullahi Krishi, who made this known in a press statement, disclosed that Abbas made this known on Tuesday during an interactive session with members of the House of Representatives Press Corps in Abuja.
He said Abass noted it was erroneous to say that the expansion was solely to create additional chairmanship and deputy chairmanship positions for House members as new committees were established to reduce the heavy workload on existing ones and to allow for more effective scrutiny of the MDAs.
Citing the example of the Committee on Tertiary Education, which had been tasked with overseeing over 300 institutions, making effective oversight challenging, he noted that it was broken to enhance efficiency and accountability in the oversight of executive actions.
Abass stated: “In the past, not all committees were active. Now we want to ensure that all standing committees are active, working for the betterment of the Nigerian people. We want to ensure transparency, and we want results. That is why we set up the monitoring committee to monitor their activities.
“We have also set up a standing committee to monitor the implementation of our legislative agenda. I want to assure the people that we will work for the betterment of the country,” he added.
In recognition of the pivotal role the media plays in democratic governance, the Speaker pledged to strengthen the relationship between his office and the media and urged them to support efforts to promote democracy in the country.
