Abuja – The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yussuff Lasun, on Friday, said lawmakers were the most criticised
among the three arms of government in the country.
The deputy speaker said this in Abuja when he received a delegation of the FCT Children’s Parliament, led by its Speaker, Rep. Oragrand Nwaka, as part of the International Children’s Day celebration.
He said “parliamentarians would always get the knock even when they conducted business in the open.”
Lasun told the children that he hardly got enough sleep due to the enormity of work that rested on his shoulders.
“Our is probably the most criticised arm of any democratic setting. It is the most criticised.
“People ask, what do they do? They are just making noise. They are just collecting money. But I can tell you that in the last one and half months,
I have not had a sleep of five hours.
“Coming from the disagreement on the budget where I was made the chairman of the sub-committee to rework it and for almost eight days, I never had sleep of three, four hours in a particular day.
“Yet to the public, when we go to the chamber to conduct our business in the open, people think we are playing there.
“But for those Nigerians who are interested in what we do, no day will pass without you picking something that is important and relevant to the development of Nigeria.”
According to him, it is a job that one is not allowed to do any other private job.
He said “if you are a parliamentarian, the day you are voted and sworn in, you are not allowed to do any other job apart from the parliamentarian job and your constituency will be expecting you to work.
“The Nigerian public will be expecting you to be upright and be up and doing; they will expect you to solve all their problems, even those ones that you did not create.
“That is the position of the parliamentarian.”
Lasun also took time to educate the children on the composition of the legislature, as well as its basic principles.
Responding, the Speaker of the Children’s Parliament told the deputy speaker that they were holding the fourth assembly of the FCT Children’s Parliament with the theme “Protecting the Rights of the Child, End Child Marriage.”
The speaker said that the parliament endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war and was in support of his programmes.
Nwaka added that “we are representing the voiceless children of the FCT and we promise to represent their interests and ours to ensure that children grow to become great leaders of tomorrow.
“We are here to reaffirm our commitment to the defence of our rights and privileges as citizens of this great country, Nigeria.
“Hon. Speaker, let President Muhammadu Buhari, our father, know that we are in support of the war on corruption because corruption has
made our children to be sitting on floors in schools, some learn under trees.”
The delegation of the children’s parliament include its principal officers, some committee chairmen and representatives from different schools
in the FCT. (NAN)