Lagos Assembly Urges NASS To Veto Jonathan On Address Bill

The Lagos State House of Assembly has urged lawmakers at the federal level to veto President Goodluck Jonathan if he refuses assent to the State of the Nation Address bill.

In a statement signed by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy, Security and Publicity, Segun Olulade, the House stressed that if passed into law, the bill would further help to strengthen good governance since it would promote government accountability and public probity, as observed in advanced democracies like the United States of America that Nigeria claims to model after.

The statement maintained that presidential address should not be limited to the annual presentation of appropriation bill on the floor of the parliament but must be observed as a quarterly routine whereby elected representatives of the people are availed the opportunity to know how the nation is being governed, the challenges at hand and the future projections of the government.

The statement pointed out that adherence to the law by the President would also afford legislators, and indeed all Nigerians the opportunity to be well abreast of the state of the country on quarterly basis and then make them to make resourceful inputs where and when necessary.

Olulade, in the statement, said the Lagos Assembly takes exception to the allegation of inconsistency as opined by the presidency on the provisions of the bill, saying that the bill does not in any way contradict or undermine the principle of separation of powers but an expansion of the frontiers of democratic practice, which allows for accountability, checks and balances among the three arms of government.

Meanwhile, the lawmaker has urged State Houses of Assembly to domesticate the law after its passage by the National Assembly, just like it was suggested for the Freedom of Information Act, adding that President Jonathan and the governors, not their deputies, should be saddled with the responsibility of addressing their citizens on the state of their polities on quarterly basis, arguing that the delegation of this responsibility would water down the process and jettison its essence in the first place.

According to Olulade, the law would help tremendously in ensuring that public affairs are managed in a transparent, responsible, accountable and disciplined manner since the law provides room for parliamentary scrutiny and public probity.

—Eromosele Ebhomele