Obasa: Lagos Speaker

By Eromosele Ebhomele.

Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly are to embark on simultaneous town hall meetings in their various constituencies next Tuesday.

The lawmakers all agreed on Thursday to organise the town hall meeting to update their constituents on their various achievements since June when the eighth session of the House commenced. The town hall meetings would also be an opportunity for the lawmakers to listen to the challenges of their constituents and make same available to the executive arm of government as areas of focus. The state House of Assembly has 40 members including the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa.

Sanai Agunbiade, the House Majority Leader, who moved a motion for the members to organise the meeting, said it was necessary to educate constituents about the activities of legislators so far. He added that the event would also help lawmakers know the needs of their people and educate them about the works of legislators.

“It would be good for the lawmakers and the constituents to have a good relationship and the people should be better educated about the job of lawmakers and the differences in the works of the three arms of government such as the executive, the legislative and the judiciary,” he said.

He added that there is an opportunity for the people, who might not have the opportunity of making their presentations during the meetings to submit their memorandum in the Assembly on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12, November, 2015 adding that all the reports would be collated and submitted to the authorities for necessary treatment.

In his contribution, Olumuyiwa Jimoh, Deputy Majority Leader of the House, said the town hall meeting would afford lawmakers, especially the first term lawmakers, to go back and report to their people. According to him, some of these lawmakers must have made promises during campaigns and need to go back and present their scorecards. “It is an opportunity to tell the people what we can do as legislators. I once told my people during one of the town hall meetings I held with them that it is not my job to handle electricity problem. We will use the event to educate the people about our job and those of the other two arms of government,” he said.

Contributing, Victor Akande, Bisi Yusuff, Tobun Abiodun, and Rotimi Olowo said it was a great idea. Olowo stated that most of the people do not know the jobs of legislators, but that this could be an opportunity to sort things out during the meetings.

Speaker Obasa, who noted that the lawmakers were sent to the House by the people and that there was need for them to go back to give the people feedback. To him, it is better to do the town hall meeting so that the people would not reject them in four years from now when it is time for another election. “We have to go back home to hear from the people so that we can have a good relationship with them. We are inviting all the people from all spheres of life for the programme, but we will need only the representatives of the people so that it would not be rowdy. We have invited leaders such as traditional rulers, politicians, traders, marketers, CDAs, CDCs, transporters, physically challenged people, students and others as it would be advertised in the media. All the reports would be put together and submitted to the Governor for implementation,” he said.

-@selemele2