8th Assembly Driven By Performance, Not Re-Election, Says Dogara
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said members of the 8th Assembly (House of Representatives) are driven by the zeal to perform and impact on the overall betterment of Nigerians as true leaders.
Speaking while delivering an address to mark the 2nd anniversary of the 8th Assembly, the Speaker said the 8th House of Representatives has been consistent in putting the interest of their constituents first above personal interests and working to create an environment in which they can flourish.
He said, “It is important to ask ourselves some hard questions. Have we always placed the interest of our Constituents and Nigerians first in all our endeavours? Have we always placed national interest above self, regional and other interests? Are we patriotic or partisan? Have we used our legislative authority to expose corruption, inefficiency and waste in government activities? Have we made laws for the peace, order, and good government of Nigeria? Have we shown fidelity to the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in Chapter two of the Constitution?
“The answer to above posers is the criteria and yardstick to assess who we are. Are we leaders or mere politicians?
He maintained that the difference is that while politicians are just interested in the next election, leaders are cultural architects because they create the environment by which others can grow and flourish.
“On my part, I will answer the above posers with qualifications. Yes, we have done reasonably well in most of the indices indicated. But there is a very large room to do even more.”
Also while praising the house the Speaker said that the 8th Assembly introduced 1064 bills, and addressed 610 Public Petitions in the last 2 years.
Giving an appraisal of the activities of the 8th Assembly under his leadership in the last 2 years, he stressed that this achievement surpassed those recorded by previous assemblies.
“In terms of core mandate of lawmaking, we have remained a bastion of legislativze activism. Indeed, members of the 8th House of Representatives are in keen competition with one another in fashioning out legislative solutions to myriad of problems facing the nation. That is why in all facets of law-making, we can comfortably and conveniently assert that we have broken all records,” he said.