By Josephine Oguntoyinbo
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Former Majority leader, Lagos State House of Assembly and immediate past Chairman South West Legislative Reform Implementation Committee,(SLRIC).Oyeniran Agunbiade has said the harmonization of Houses of Assembly rules and standing order in Nigeria is underway.
He stated this during the inaugural meeting of the 10th Assembly for Majority Leaders in the Southwest region held in Akure.
Agunbiade affirmed that the move was first initiated in the Southwest region as the forum had achieved harmonized House rules for all the six Houses of Assembly in the zone with same being copied nationally.
According to him, the South West Legislative Reform Implementation Committee,(SLRIC has recorded a lot of sucesses since it was formed in championing legislative stability including, monitoring of the level of compliance of the State Houses of Assembly with the rules and standing orders.
He said cross learning on constituency engagement and replication of committee in the southeast region of Nigeria are part of the forum achievements.
He informed that other successes recorded so far from the set objectives include, financial autonomy of State Houses of Assembly from the Executives, Improved member constituent engagements, and massive improvement on oversight functions.
“The forum were able to established common rules in the southwest and champion learning events across the State Houses of Assembly, serve as a platform for sharing learning and effective practices with particular reference to legislative development that would bring about functionality of the Houses of Assembly.
“It serves as a link between citizen’s groups, institutions and professional bodies that are willing to work with the State Houses of Assembly to enhance the delivery of public goods and services such as constituency engagement meetings and other programmes and constant engagement of the conference of Speakers in the South west for upward development”, Agunbiade noted.
During the meeting , the SLRIC sworn in the Majority Leader of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Oluwole Ogunmolasuyi as the new Chairman alongside other executives who have been earlier elected to pilot the affairs of the forum for the next four years.
In his acceptance speech, the new Chairman said that the forum will continue to serve as a rally point for all southwest majority leaders in order to enhance their various regional integration.
According to him, the Akure meeting will lay the foundation upon which the new Houses of Assembly will build on in the zone and it is expected of the majority leaders in the South-West region to encourage lawmakers to contribute immensely to the development of their constituents.
Ogunmolasuyi, therefore, promised that the forum under his leadership will strive to do better than the past and ensure that all the objectives which it stands for shall be upheld.
While declaring the inaugural meeting open, the Speaker, Ondo State House Of Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, who spoke through the Deputy Speaker, Abayomi Akinruntan said that the committee should ensure that a platform be created for effective service delivery as regards oversight which will enhance the level of legislative compliance among the Southwest Houses of Assembly.
