Abuja – The House of Representatives on Tuesday said it may limit membership of its committees to three for each legislator to enhance their effective participation in committees’ assignments.
Deputy Speaker of the house, Mr Yussuf Lasun, gave the hint in Abuja at a meeting with delegates of the United Kingdom Parliament on bilateral exchange of good parliamentary practice and procedure.
Lasun told the five-member delegation that the House was considering making one member not to belong to more than three committees to give room for optimal performance of the committees.
He said that although democracy was still young in Nigeria, “the Nigerian parliament is very developed”.
He said that the committee system was one of the most developed aspects of Nigeria’s parliament, explaining that it was used in over-sighting activities of the Executive and for attracting federal presence to constituencies.
“The only problem with our democracy is that we have not come to the stage where government will come out with a clear-cut economic policy.
“Executive, in a democratic process cannot work in isolation; they must link up with the legislature.
“We have had 17 years of unbroken democratic rule; I certainly know that we are going to improve.
“If you compare us with other democracies, our National Assembly is well developed,’’ he said.
In her speech, Leader of delegation, Kate Osamor, highlighted the importance of empowering women.
According to her, it is necessary that if a country wants to grow, it has to empower women. Injecting women into parliament in 1997 made decision-making better in the UK parliament.
Also speaking, Mr David Mackintosh called for abolishing of some customs and cultural practices in Nigeria to ensure that child rights and gender equality were promoted.
Their Nigerian counterparts at the meeting agreed on the sanctity of child rights and gender equality, adding that at 17 years of democracy, Nigeria had fared well.
They called for regular engagements among parliaments around the world for exchanges on issues of development and parliamentary growth. (NAN)
