ASSEMBLY REVIEW: LAGOS ASSEMBLY- Lateness as Hallmark of Legislative Business
– Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly may have earned for themselves the notoriety of being an assemblage of lousy time keepers given the way they have made unpunctuality a hallmark of their activities. In this review, LEGISREPORTS will discuss this issue with hope that the leadership of the assembly take corrective measure into addressing this obnoxious behaviour of Lagos lawmakers.
There have recurring concerns and worries about the attitude of Lagos lawmakers on the issue of punctuality in their legislative business. It got so bad that recently, journalists covering the assembly boycotted a plenary session due to what they referred to as incessant late commencement of sitting.
Again, just last week when the assembly organised a special parliamentary session for the late Wole Awolowo, the issue of time consciousness cropped up. Guests were seated as at 10am, hoping that the event would commence early, but due to the usual late arrival of the Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, the event did not commence until about 1pm.
It would be recalled that at the expiration of the sixth assembly, Ikuforiji had said: “As we go into the seventh assembly, issue of punctuality won’t be the same. No matter what it may be; no matter how important, it will have to wait till after the sitting.
“I promise that by the next legislative Assembly, things will change for better and we will ensure that all hands are deck in carrying out our legislative duties,” Ikuforiji had pledged. The pertinent question is what happened to that pledge two years into the seventh assembly?
The Lagos assembly, no doubt has been seen to be modest in many ramifications. But despite being a pace-setter for other things, only one bad attitude has been a major problem of the House, which is late commencement of plenary. The assembly has never attached any importance to punctuality, which many believe is the soul of business.
If there was one thing the immediate past Clerk of the House, Taiwo Olatunji would detest so much about the Lagos House, one could be sure it was the issue of late commencement of sittings. Before Olatunji retired as the Clerk, he once charged the present assembly to take up the issue of punctuality serious, as he said; adherence to this would give them sufficient time to meet with their official and private businesses.
“A situation where daily sittings that are scheduled to commence at 10am or 12pm, would not start until about 2pm–4pm and even 6pm in some other days surely does not speak well of us. It is against this backdrop that I propose that the rules relevant should be reviewed to indicate the time a sitting would end so that members can programme their other equally important commitments till after the plenary session,” Olatunji had advised.
Many had thought that the House would yield to Olatunji’s advice and that the promise made by Ikuforiji would be adhered to, but the virus, which damaged the hormone of the sixth Assembly, managed to find its way into the present Assembly.
Many a time, the lawmakers will have serious business on the order paper, but sitting will not commence on time and eventually, many items will have to be stepped down for another sitting day. Plenary sessions are adjourned to 12pm on Mondays and 10am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but this timing has never for once been kept, as plenary sessions do not commence until around 2.30pm and most times 4pm.
Most times, some of the serious lawmakers would have taken their seats awaiting the arrival of the Speaker, but to no avail. Many after sitting for hours, expecting the Speaker to come, would choose to leave out of annoyance in order to attend to other serious businesses. And when the Speaker eventually comes in, one statement he has always made is: “We are sorry for the late commencement; it is not in our character. Many, who know me, know that I don’t joke with time.”
Lawmakers, legislative officers, staff of the assembly, even journalists have had causes to complain about this unwholesome attitude. Journalists that are expected to file in their stories latest by 3pm won’t have anything to write about, when the sitting was even yet to commence by that time.
Many a time, observers who have came to witness plenary sessions have left in annoyance due to late commencement. The most bothersome part of it is that after commencing late, some of the lawmakers still chose to display the comedy aspect of them by using unparliamentary words and jokes that are not supposed to be heard from serious legislators just to make others laugh. This may take another hour before the business of the day is attended to.
One of the lawmakers in confidence recently told LEGISREPORTS that, “we are fed up with this issue of not keeping to time. Most times, many of us will be seated in the chamber waiting for sitting to commence, the Speaker won’t come in. We all have other things we do apart from the business of lawmaking, it is only when we finish on time, we can have the opportunity to attend to other things. But I just pray we will overcome this bad habit one day.”
Another lawmaker confided in this reporter thus: “My brother, it is you people that can help us, help us talk to the leadership of the House. There is nothing we are doing in the House till 6 in the evening. Sitting that should start by 10 in the morning won’t start until 3pm and at times 4pm, personally, I am not happy about it. You people should help us because you have the power; help us talk to the leadership of the House to do something about it. If we start our sitting on time, we will finish on time and everybody will go back to his or her constituency to attend to other issues.”
Also, a journalist from one of the national dailies said “what can we do? We can’t force them to sit when they are not ready. All we can do is to let the public know the kind of people they have voted for to represent them. They won’t start sitting on time and they would expect to see their stories in the paper the following day, which is not possible. We all have deadlines, once your story don’t come in at the right time, there is no way the story can go the following day, except it is a very strong story.
“We as House Correspondents can put them on their toes to do what is right, we should not keep quiet, we should keep telling the public about some of these things. We are also not happy leaving the House of Assembly late, some of us have our offices located in far places and after leaving this place, we still have to go to our various offices. Sincerely it is very sad.”
LEGISREPORTS hopes the citizens of Lagos will impress upon their lawmakers to see the need for punctuality given that they earn their pay from the people.
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