OrderPaper Nigeria and its partners have announced twenty out of 469 members of the Ninth National Assembly as Semi-Finalists for the country’s first-ever Most Valuable Parliamentarian (MVP) Hall of Fame.
In a statement released in Abuja by the organisation’s Executive Director, Oke Epia, OrderPaper said the shortlist comprises a female Senator, two Principal Officers, two Presiding Officers and ten first-term lawmakers across party lines from both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Epia hinted that the MVP Hall of Fame initiative, which is in furtherance of OrderPaper’s contributions to legislative strengthening and promotion of improved service delivery in the National Assembly, aims at identifying and sustaining a distinct class of legislators who are performance-driven, excellence-inspired, and public-spirited.
According to the statement, having undertaken an independent, thorough and unprecedented data-driven annual performance appraisals of the 469-member Ninth National Assembly since its first anniversary in 2020, the organisation said that it deemed it appropriate and timely to commence instituting the Most Valuable Parliamentarian (MVP) Hall of Fame.
According to him, the annual appraisals focused exclusively on the core legislative function of law-making, and consideration for the MVP nomination and subsequent shortlisting essentially applied the criteria of Value, Impact, and Productivity in rating the contributions of those shortlisted.
The Executive Director explained that Value speaks to the correlation of a bill’s advancement of the governance objective of the Federal Government; impact relates to the empirical contribution of a bill to the enhancement of the lives and living conditions of citizens; and productivity applies to the stage of progression of a bill to measure the diligence, dedication and hard work put into its processing by its sponsor.
He noted that following the midterm appraisals, 55 members of the National Assembly were nominated for possible induction and consequently conferred with certificates of recognition at a prestigious Evening of Sparkles held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja in July 2022.
Epia said that only 20 of these nominees had made the semi-final shortlist and would be subjected to a rigorous points-based scoring system to arrive as the eventual inductees into the Hall of Fame.
He said that the semi-final shortlist was determined at the completion of the third-year appraisal, and the eventual inductees would emerge following further assessments in the last year of the four-year tenure.
He pointed out that this last and final assessment to determine the Most Valuable Parliamentarians of the Ninth National Assembly would be assisted in terms of oversight by an MVP Panel of Experts (MPEs) drawn from parliamentary think tanks, the academia, media, civil society, and the private sector.
The statement presented the semi-final shortlist as follows:
1. Top Performers- Value and Impact Bills:
Samuel Ifeanyi Onuigbo (APC, Umuahia North/Umuahia South, Federal Constituency, Abia) Ezenwa Francis Onyewuchi (LP, Imo East Senatorial District) Ovie Augustine Omo-Agege (APC, Delta Central Senatorial District) Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central Senatorial District) Benjamin Okezie Kalu (APC, Bende, Federal Constituency, Abia)
2. Top Performers, Senate Productivity Index
Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central Senatorial District) Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC, Kwara Central Senatorial District) Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (APC, Adamawa-Central Senatorial District) Mohammed Sani Musa (APC, Niger East Senatorial District) Ovie Augustine Omo-Agege (APC, Delta Central Senatorial District).
3. Top Performers, House Of Representatives Productivity Index Dan Agundi Munir Babba (APC, Kumbotso Federal Constituency, Kano) Uzoma Nkem Abonta (PDP, Ukwa East/Ukwa West, Federal Constituency, Abia) Fulata Abubakar Hassan (APC, Birniwa/Guri /Kiri Kasama, Federal Constituency, Jigawa) Mohammed Tahir Monguno (APC, Monguno /Nganzai/Marte, Federal Constituency, Borno) Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Surulere I, Federal Constituency, Lagos)
4. Top Performers, Senate Newbies
Mohammed Sani Musa (APC, Niger East Senatorial District) Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central Senatorial District) Orji Uzor Kalu (APC, Abia North Senatorial District) Micheal Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central Senatorial District) Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah (YPP, Anambra South Senatorial District)
5. Top Performers, House Of Representatives Newbies Simon Davou Mwadkwon (PDP, Barkin Ladi /Riyom Federal Constituency, Plateau) Dachung Musa Bagos (PDP, Jos South/Jos East Federal Constituency, Plateau) Onofiok Luke Akpan (PDP, Etinan/Nsit Ibom / Nsit Ubium Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom) Waive Ejiroghene Francis (APC, Ughelli North /Ughelli South/ Udu Federal Constituency, Delta) Benjamin Okezie Kalu (APC, Bende, Federal Constituency, Abia).
